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■V AND THE HISTORY OF ^ 
^ CABIN 

Ja5.LH05T 



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LIBRARY "' CONGRESS 
Two Cooies Rwpived 
AUG 8 1904 

Cnpyrleht tntrv 
CLASS a- XXo. No. 

8"^ + 8' i= 

COPY S 



t 



COPYRIGHT, 1!I04 

All Rights Reserved, 

BY 
J. L. POST, 
ST, LOUIS. 




^ 











^ PREFACE ^ 

IN the late summer of 1854, U. S. Grant hav- 
ing resigned a captaincy in the regular Army 
to be home with his family in St. Louis Conu- 
ty; decided in order to be thoruoughly inde- 
pendent to erect a home for himself and family. 

The only material athand was the logs which he 
hewed from the for est on the land owned by him. 
He set to work with a will and determination that 
the world at that time was not aware he possessed, 
and the humble log cabin in which he and his fam- 
ily spent so many happy years, was soon finished. 
For fifty years it has remained almost buried 
from public view in an out of the way place in St. 
Louis County. Neither the patriotism of the Gov- 
ernment, nor that of the individual citizens, has ever 
prompted them to inaugurate any public movement 
toward preserving this historic relic; until a gentle- 
man, one of St. Louis' foremost citizens and active 
in all public enterprises, decided that if no one else 
would do so, he would personally preserve for fut- 
ure generations; this monument to one of America's 
greatest soldiers and statesmen; a monument built 
by his own handsand to the preserver of this his- 
toric relic, Mr. C. F. Blanke, this book is respectful- 
ly dedicated. 

JAS. L. POST. 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



NTRODUCTORY. 



That "there is a destiny that shapes our ends, 
rough hew tliem as we may," was never more strik- 
ingly illustrated than in the life of Ulysses S. 
Grant. 

Coming from a family of soldiers, one of his an- 
cestors having held commissions in the English 
Army in the war against the French and the In- 
dians, and later his grandfather in a Connecticut 
company of the Continental Army, participating in 
the battle of Bunker Hill and serving throughout 
the entire Revolutionary War. The other members 
of the families of his ancestors ever moving west- 
ward and opening up new countries, braving the 
dangers of the pioneer, each carving out his own 
career without the aid or assistance of others ; it is 
only natural that he should have inherited a taste 
for military life. 

His parents, Jesse R. Grant and Hannah Simp- 
son, were married in June, 1821, and on April 27, 
1822 at Point Pleasant, Clermont county, Ohio, a 
son was born. 

Like all proud parents they doubtless indulged in 
the laudable ambition that this, their first son, 
Ulysses S. Grant, would some day be a great man 
(every fond parent has done this since the world 
began and will continue to do so until the end of 
time), but little did they picture to themelves as 
that tiny bit of humanity was ushered into the 
arena of life that on that day, began a career that 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 



was destined to be one of the most eventful of 
America's Great Men. 

Much has been written about Grant and his mili- 
tary and political achievements, but in this book it 
is proposed to give some insight into the traits of 
character which were known to his personal ac- 
quaintances while he was an humble citizen of St. 
Louis, attracting no especial attention in the little 
community in which he lived and attracting none 
whatever from the world at large, that same world 
which a few years later riveted their eyes upon him, 
watching his slightest move. 

That a prophet is not without honor save in his 
own country, is called to mind by one of the anec- 
dotes in this book. When those who knew him in 
St. Louis, upon reading of a decisive victory in one 
of the battles under the direction of U. S. Grant, in- 
quired of each other, "Could this be the same Grant 
that we knew here in St. Louis tliat seemed so good 
for nothing?" 

Grant, like all great men, was modest. He talked 
little of himself or his family, evidently believing 
that those who are continually talking about their 
family tree are merely dead branches, and the best 
part of the tree is underground. Grant preferred 
to make his own record, and for that reason had a 
natural distaste to asking favors of others. He 
preferred a home life in company with his family, 
to the life of a soldier for which he had been 
educated at West Point, but several times was 
compelled on account of his seeming lack of bus- 
ness ability to succeed in domestic pursuits to 



10 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



rejoiu tlie army; in fact his early career is one 
recital of resignations and enlistments and app>lica- 
tions f<^r fnrlonghs, in order to Ix^, if possible, AVith 
his family; but always winding up as a soldier, the 
only career for which he seemed to be fitted by na- 
ture. 

His early education was confined to the primitive 
subscription schools of his home village in George- 
town, except during the winters of 1836-7 and 1838- 
9. The former period was spent at a school in 
Maysville, Kentucky, and the latter at a private 
school in Ifipley, Ohio. He received his apoint- 
ment to West Point in 1839. Graduated from West 
Point in 1843, and his first service was at Jefferson 
Barracks, Missouri, in 1844. 

In May of the same year his regiment was trans- 
ferred to Louisiana .In May 1845 he procured a 
leave of absence for twenty days and visited St. 
Louis. In his Personal Memoirs he seems to have 
forgotten that Ohio was on the map and seemed to 
think that there was only one spot in the universe 
that got the direct rays of the sun and that was St. 
Louis. This was perhaps due to the fact that St. 
Louis was the home of a very charming young lady 
to whom he was afterwards married on the twenty- 
second of August, 1848. 

Near the close of the short session of Congress, 
1844-5, the bill for the annexation of Texas to the 
United States was passed. It reached President 
Tyler on the first of March, 1845, and promptly re- 
ceived his approval. On hearing this news the regi- 
ment immediately expected trouble and anxiously 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 11 



waited "furtlier orders." The oi'deis not luaterial- 
iziiig, Lieut. Grant asked for and obtained on May 
the tirst, a lea^e of absence for twenty days for the 
purpose of visiting- St. Louis. 

In July, 1845, the long looked for orders were re- 
ceived and his regiment was transferred to New 
Orleans. In September, 1845, the regiment left 
for Corpus Christi. Wlien the entire "Army of 
Occupation" had assembled at Corpus Christi it 
consisted of alM)ut 3,000 men in all, General Zach- 
ary Taylor in command. 

In 1859 U. S. Grant, afterAvards the distinguished 
General and President of the United States, applied 
to the Commissioners of St. Louis County for the 
appointment of County Surveyor. In a note to the 
editor of the Missouri Republican dated February' 
26, 1881, Honorable John F, Darby gives the fol- 
lowing account of this episode in Grant's career: 

"In your obituary notice of Henry B. Belt, 
Esquire, in this morning's '^ Republican'^ in speak- 
ing of the deceased, among other things you say : 
'He was one of the judges of the County Court from 
1854 to 1856, and was one of the two judges that 
voted favorably on the application of U. S. Grant 
for the appointment of County Surveyor. The oth- 
er judge was Phil. Lanliam.' 

"You have been misled in the above statement. 
It is entirely untrue. U. S. Grant never applied 
to the County Court for the appointment of County 
Suiweyor. 

"In 1859, after the County Court of St. Louis 
County had been abolished by the Legislature for al- 



12 PERSONAL REMINIbCENCES 



leged misroiiduct and a. new Conrt established by 
law for St. Louis County, called the County Com- 
missioners' Court, composed of Liohtner, Taussig, 
Farrar, Easton and Tippet, U. 8. (irant did apply 
to the County Commissioners' Court for the ap- 
pointment of Surveyor of the roads, etc., in St. 
Louis County against Mr. Solomon. 

"I with other gentlemen advocated Grant's claim. 
Solomon was appointed by the vote of Taussig, 
Lightner and Farrar and Tippet and Easton voted 
for Grant, consequently Belt and Lanham were not 
on the bench and never voted upon anv application 
by U. S. Grant. 

"The records of the St. Louis County Commis- 
sioners' Court show this.'' 



On January 29, 1864, a dinner was given to Major 
General U. S. Grant at the Lindell Hotel at which 
there were three hundred guests. 

Judge Samuel Treat, of the United States Court 
presided, assisted by ^Messrs. John O' Fallon, Way- 
man Crow, Adolphus ]Meier, Judge Samuel Reber, 
Jas. Archer, Geo. R. Taylor, Barton Aliel, as vice- 
presidents. 

Among the military guests were Major General 
Schofield, Brigadier Generals Jas. Totten, John B. 
Gray, John McNeil, E. B. Brown, Clinton B. Fisk, 
A. G. Edwards. 



Some of the notable events in the career of U. S. 
Grant were: 

The presentation of his diploma by General Scott 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 13 



at West Point in 1843. 

His direction of the bombardment, from the 
tower of Chapultepec, August 13, 1847. 

The drilling of volunteers in 1861. 

The battle of Fort Donelson, February 12-16, 
1862. 

The battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862. 

The siege of Yicksburg, May to July 1863. 

Battle of Chattanooga, November 23-25, 1863. 

His appointment, by Abraham Lincoln, as Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the Army, March 12, 1864. 

The surrender of General Lee at Appomattox, 
April 9, 1865. 

His election to the Presidency of the United 
States, 1868, and re-election in 1872. 



The pattern of the cart in which Madam Chou- 
teau and family were seated when old Riviere drove 
them from Fort Chartres to Cahokia, Laclede rid- 
ing alongside, to make their visit to yet unplanted 
St. Louis, is identical with that in which ex-Captain 
U. S. Grant used to drive his load of wood from 
Dent's place in Carondelet to St. Louis. — Extract 
from Manners and Customs of Early St. Louis. 



Another example of Grant's modesty, showing how 
little was known of him, is a copy of the Daily Mis- 
souri Republican, published in St. Louis on Wed- 
nesday, March 30, 1864. Ten years prior to this 
U. S. Grant at that time a veteran of the Mexican 
war, lived in St. Louis County with his family and 
not having the ready money with which to buy a 



14 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



liome or have one built, was obliged to hew the logs 
with which he built the now historic log cabin which 
stands on Art Hill in the World's Fair grounds in 
Forest Park. He sold wood cut from the forest on 
his land in the county to prominent residents of St. 
Louis, hauling the wood to St. Louis himself, and 
his traits of character were such that he made 
friends with all of those with whom he came in con- 
tact. 

Ten years later, 1864, the DaUy Missouri Repuh- 
Z/cftu heads an article of four columns: 
LIEUT. GENERAL GRANT. 

TN'e have been favored by an intimate personal 
friend of Lieut. General Grant with the subjoined 
authentic biographical sketch of that distinguished 
officer, whose brilliant and signal services during 
the past 3 ear have raised him so rapidly, as well, as 
deservedly to his present exalted position. As com- 
paratively few of his countrymen are acquainted 
with the earlier antecedents of his life, a curiosity 
inspired as well by his recent achievements as his 
present distinguished rank and great responsibili- 
ties, will impart a deep and wide interest to the 
memoir of the illustrious soldier, which we have 
the pleasure to give below. (Following this is an 
article on General Grant, which article we do not 
reproduce for lack of space. ) 



GENERAL GRANT'S LOG CABIN. 

Amidst the architectural splendors and the pala- 
tial structures of the greatest of all AYorld's Fairs, 
the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and surround- 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 15 



ed by trees at the very top of Art Uill and at the 
heaci of the Cascades, stands in all its original sim- 
plicity the plain log cabin erected by General U. S. 
Grant in 185-4, and whicli was his home for many 
years. 

little did he think at the time he was forced to 
build this log cabin to shelter his family that in a 
few short years he would be one of the most talked 
of men in the world, and doubtless little dreamed 
that he would be tendered the highest ofiice within 
the gift of the American people. There is a great 
object lesson in this humble log cabin for the young 
man of to-day, who thinks his lot in life is hard 
and sees little promise of ever rising above his pres- 
ent surroundings and is prone to become discour- 
aged and disheartened, for if he will look at this 
cabin and think of the man who built it and lived 
in it barely able to earn enough to provide for his 
family it gives him encouragement to fight on with 
the hope that he may some day make his mark in the 
world. 

There is some good in every man, some spark of 
genius which in the majority of cases is not discov- 
ered for the reason that the whole human family are 
subjects of heredity and environment. 

Chance has made nmny a hero, but he must have 
the making of a hero in him to take advantage of 
that chance when it is offered. 

This little log cabin has been lying in St. Louis 
County for 50 years unnoticed by the general pub- 
lic, because it was hidden away h\ trees and far 
from the roadway. Neither the patriotism of the 




Copyrigfht, Tabor-Prang Art Co. 
Reproduced by permission. 



16 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



American ])('(>pl(\ nor the patriotisni of tlu^ (Jeveru- 
ment ever prompted any action towards preservinu' 
this historii- i clicjuit it occni red to one of St. Lonis" 
most prominent citizens, Mr. (\ V. Hhmke, to pur- 
chase the caltin on his own personal account and 
after tlie V:\\v is over pi-esent it to the city of St. 
Louis, on condition tliat tlu\v jtreserve it as a his- 
toric relic. 

The cabin is one of tiie tirst ]K»ints loitked for by 
visitors and long after the palatial structures of the 
Worhl's Fair will have been torn down ami linger 
but as a memory in the minds of the people this 
humble home of the statesman soldier will still 
stand on Art II ill as a nn)nument built by one of 
America's greatest as well as humblest citizens. 



The com]>iler and i»nblisher wishes to thank the 
gentlemen who so kindly furnished the anecdotes 
that follow, and the reader will be well repaid by 
studying carefully each cme of them. Each of these 
distinguished gentlemen has told his story in his 
own peculiar style, and over his autograph, and 
each one of these gentlemen was a personal friend 
of General (Jrant. 

J. L. P. 



\ 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 



17 




\ 



Johnson. 



Born in Lebanon, St. Clair 
County Illinois, Jan. 18, 1836. 
His father Henry Johnson was 
a native of Pennsylvania and 
his mother whose maiden name 
was Elvira Foulke, was born 
in Kaskaskia Illinois and saw 
much of frontier life 
As a yuung man, Chas. P. Johnson received his early edu- 
cation in the Belleville public schools. To the culture of his 
mother was due to a very great extent, the excellencies of his 
mental as well as his moral character. At an early age, he 
learned the printers trade and published in his 18th year, a 
paper in Sparta, Illinois. He disposed of this enterprise in 
1854 and attended McKendree college at Lebanon, Illinois. 

In 1855 he removed to St. Louis, and in 1857 was ad- 
mitted to the bar. Political contests at this time were ex- 
ceedingly bitter, and his opinions threw him into the ranks 
of the Free Soil Party, of which he became a recognized 
leader, in company with Francis P. Blair and other intrepid 
men. 

In 1859 Mr. Johnson was elected City Attorney. In 1860 
he advocated the election of Lincoln to the Presidency, and 
in 1861, when the war broke out, espoused the cause of the 
Union, and by his eloquence and influence greatly strength- 
ened the cause of the Anti-Secession Leaders in St. Louis. 
He enlisted under the first call for troops, was elected Lieu- 
tenant, and served for three months in the Third Missouri 
Regiment. He then assisted in raising the Eighth Missouri 
Regiment, and personally tendered the services of that organ- 
ization to President Lincoln. He was tendered the Major- 
ship of the regiment, but declined it on account of delicate 



18 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



health. 

In 1862 he was nominated for Congress, which honor he 
declined, but accepted a candidacy on the Legislative ticket 
(on account of his interest in state laws), to which oflBce he 
was elected. Again in 1865 he was re-elected to the Legis- 
lature by a large majority, serving until 1866, when he ac- 
cepted the appointment of State's Attorney for the City and 
County of St. Louis, which position he filled for six years 
in a manner that gained for him universal approbation and laid 
the foundation for his subsequent brilliant career at the bar. 
In 1872 he was nominated for Lieutenant Governor on the 
joint Democratic and Liberal Republican state ticket, and was 
elected. During his term as Lieutenant Governor he became 
noted for his remarkable ability as a parliamentarian, being 
one of the few presidents from whose decisions no appeal 
was ever taken. 

At the expiration of his term he resumed the practice of 
law until the prevalence of public gambling became so ob- 
noxious that he determined to suppress the evil, if possible, 
and for that purpose again became a member of the Legis- 
lature. In 1880 he introduced and secured the passage of 
the now famous Johnson Gambling Law, making gambling a 
felony. 

Governor Johnson's reputation is not confined to the courts 
of this city, but he is known throughout the country, and 
has frequently been sent for to take charge or cases coming 
up in courts in the far Western as well as Eastern states. 
His reputation is nationsl, and as an orator he stands second 
to none. As a prosecutor he was rarely known to lose a 
case, but being of a sympathetic nature, always followed up 
the cases where he secured a conviction, and after having 
convicted his man and satisfied the law would make sev- 
eral personal appeals, if necessary, to the Governor of the 
state in order to have the sentence commuted to <a term in 
the penitentiary. It is said that of all the convictions he se- 
cured there was but one instance where he was unable to 
persuade the Governor to commute the sentence. 

Governor Johnson is at his best when pleading for the de- 
fense, and the manner in which he can sway a jury is almost 
hypnotic. 

General U. S. Grant was the hero of the war for 



^ 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 19 



the preservation of the Republic, during which he 
achieved immortal fame. 

One of his strongest traits, hoAvever, as shown 
throughout his marvelous career, was his simplicity 
of character and freedom from ostentation, vanity 
and egotism. 

In heart at least he was a child of nature and 
what I here relate I think will go far to verify my 
statement. 

I became acquainted with General Grant when he 
was a partner of Mr. Henry Boggs in the real estate 
business. Mr. Boggs was a cousin of Mrs. Grant's. 
Their office was on Pine street, on the north side, in 
the city of St. Louis, between Second and Third 
streets. I had been a student for a time in the of- 
fice of Sloss & Jones, attorneys-at-law, in an office 
in the adjoining building to the west, and had for 
my sleeping apartment a hall room in the building 
in which the firm of Boggs & Grant was located. 
In fact my apartment adjoined their office on the 
second floor. The law firm of Moody, McClellan & 
Hillyer was in the front room on the lower floor. 
Mr. Hillyer of that firm was afterwards appointed 
on the staff of General Grant, shortly after the 
commencement of the war. 

General Grant never made a dollar as a real 
estate agent, and during the time he was in the 
business made his application to the County 
Commissioners of St. Louis for the position as 
Superintendent of County Roads. In referring to 
his failure to procure the appointment, he says, 
"My opponent had the advantage of birth over me 



20 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



(he >\as a citizen In- adoption) and cari'ied off the 
prize." He withdrew from the partnersliip with 
Boijji^s in INIay, 1860, and removed to Galena, Illi- 
nois, where he took a clerkship in his father's store. 

During his stay in the building referred to I met 
him frequently and though he was silent and taci- 
turn in manner I soon became on talking terms with 
him. In conversation he was both pleasant, interest- 
ing and instructive. His former connection with the 
army and service in the Mexican war afforded a 
field for conversation of absorbing interest to me. 
The exciting campaigns of Generals Scott and Tay- 
lor were part of my boyhood recollections. 

At the time I speak of General Grant was a great 
smoker, using both cigars and pipe. He would oc- 
casionally during the summer evenings sit on the 
steps in front of his office building and smoke and 
chat on various subjects of passing importance. 
Right across the street was a cigar store kept by a 
thin, sharp visaged little German, whose complex- 
ion was yellow enough to remind one of a shriveled 
and dried up leaf of Virginia plant. 

He was good natured, quiet, talkative and af- 
forded his customers a good deal of amusement by 
the novel manner in which he constructed sentences 
and pronounced the English language. General 
Grant was a customer at the shop and keenly en- 
joyed a talk with him. 

The janitress of the building was a negro aunty 
of the old slave school, who dressed as such and 
always Avore a red bandana handkerdiief around 
her head. She was as kind and good a creature 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 21 



as ever lived. She occupied a rear apartment at 
the end of a long porch on the lower floor of the 
building with her husband, a grizzled old negro, 
who had worked and purchased his freedom and 
was still at work driving a dray. 

Everybody in the building and in fact all who 
knew her had a kind word and an affectionate feel- 
ing for the old aunty. When the chilling days of 
frost, snow and ice came she always had a huge 
boiler of coffee boiling on the stove and stood on 
watch to catch each of her wards (for she seemed 
to think we were all under her special care) and 
greet them with, "Come chile, you need a cup of hot 
coffee to keep away de cold." 

Many, many years have run away since then, but 
I never revert to those student days without a 
"God bless you" for old aunty. There were other 
personages about the building and in the locality 
that attracted attention, and were known to Gen- 
eral Grant, but as stated above General Grant 
abandoned the real estate business, bid farewell to 
his Pine street and other associates, shook the dust 
of Missouri from his feet and located in Illinois, 
and it was well he did so, as after events proved.. 

In 1861 tlie Civil War was precipitated upon the 
country. The conflict lasted for over four years. In 
that time the United States was the arena for the 
greatest struggle in behalf of human liberty that 
ever occurred in the history of mankind. There 
was no contest like unto it, either ancient or mod- 
ern. Its grandeur and magnitude are still but par- 
tially understood. It was an era of heroic achieve- 



22 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



ments beyond the powers of the greatest of epic 
poets to appropriately immortalize. 

The historian has not yet appeared, who can do 
justice to the lofty theme. In that period of mighty 
events, General Grant stands out as the great un- 
equaled leader of the armies of the nation. The 
arbitriment was left to the sword and from the 
humble position of clerk at Galena General Grant 
went to Springfield, Illinois, the home of Abraham 
Lincoln, and took up the sword. With it he mar- 
shalled first the legions of the West, and then the 
legions of both the West and the East, those of the 
entire nation and from Belmont to Appomattox, 
through the bewildering and bloody vicissitudes of 
war he bore the sword and led the nation's hosts to 
triumph and victory. The halo of an unrivaled and 
unequaled glory crowned him, when the mighty 
warrior of the South surrendered his sword at Ap- 
pomattox. 

I did not meet General Grant after parting with 
him on Pine street until a day or two prior to the 
Fourth of July, 1865. Since that time his achieve- 
ments as referred to had exalted him to the highest 
pinnacle of glory in the hearts of his countrymen, 
and the estimation of the world. I was in the city 
of Washington in company with Mr. Peter L. Foy, 
a former editor of the Missouri Democrat, and an 
ardent friend at all times of the Union cause. He 
suggested that it was our duty, as St. Louisa ns, to 
visit and pay our respects to General Grant. We 
called at his residence on Pennsylvania avenue and 
were ushered into the parlor. It was a gala day in 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 



Washington. It was a day of rejoicing there and 
throughout the entire North. The war was ended. 
From out the highway there came the notes of 
martial music, the rattling and rumbling of long- 
lines of artillery, the clattering noise of cavalry 
and the measured tramp of thousands of returning 
veterans. Flags and bunting fluttered from every 
house and inspiring scenes were presented on every 
side. 

In a short time General Grant came in. He was 
plainly dressed in citizens' clothes, his favorite 
black frock coat was adorned only with a small 
stripe, golden lined, and having thereon the soli- 
tary star which marked the highest position in the 
army. 

He first addressed Mr. Foy and shook his hand 
heartily ; he had seen Mr. Foy a few months before 
and knew him quite well. He then addressed me. 
and after looking at me for a moment remarked : 
"I think I know you. You were a student of law in 
St. Louis when I was one of the firm of Boggs & 
Grant." "You are right. General, there is where 
we met." "Well, I am very glad to meet you. Come 
and sit on the lounge here and tell me something 
about the old crowd." I sat down and for nearly an 
hour he talked with interest and animation about 
the various personages he had met in and around 
the old office on Pine street. With very apparent 
feeling he asked about the old aunty and her hus- 
band, and when I told him she had been gathered 
to her long rest a year or two before, he expressed 
his sorrow and eulogized her for her many kind and 



24 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



amiable qualities. Nor was the old German tobac- 
conist forgotten, and lie quietly laughed when re- 
ferring- to his humorous characteristics. From this 
he branched off into some recollections of life in St. 
Louis, but resumed again as we parted to his mem- 
ories of the old aunty. During the entire conver 
sation his mind seemed centered upon the recollec- 
tions connected with the Pine street office and the 
characters to which I have alluded. He seemed to 
deeply enjoy the retrospect. I thought then, and 
I think now that this incident afforded an admir- 
able illustration of one of the strongest traits of 
General Grant's character. 

Occupying the most exalted position that glori- 
ous achievements could place him in, and surround- 
ed by all the pomp and circumstances of war, yet in 
the simplicity of his nature he turned with pleasure 
to his kindly recollections of one of the most hum- 
ble of God's creatures. 

General Grant was dowered with a great mind, 
he had withal a great heart. 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 



25 



BIEfAnOUS GRANT CABIN CmNGES ftWS. 

I fostSoted Bouse about Htfflouis to be PRESERVED 
TOTME PUBLIC ior all Mime. 



C. F. BLANKE BUYS 

HISTORIC STRUCTURE. 




General Grant Built It On The 

Old Gravois Road in 1854. 

His Life As a St. Louis 

County Farmer.— ^The Preservation 
Of His Humble Home.-^ — The Cabin 

Now at Old Orchard Will be Taken 

To Forest Park Grant Called It, 

The "Hardscrabble House" 



The most famous log cabin in the world has just 
been bought by C. F. Blanke, of St. Louis, and 
will be preserved in Forest Park as a sacred relic of 
American history. It is the log house that Gen. 
Grant built. 

Gen. Grant's log cabin, built by his own hands on 
the old Kidge road, nine miles southwest of St. 
Louis, when the ex-army officer was a struggling 



26 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



farmer in 1855, and occupied by Grant and his fam- 
ily for three years, will stand next year in the 
World's Fair grounds, dwarfing in popular interest 
the magnificent palaces of the Exposition. From 
all countries, from all climes ^^'ill come pilgrims 
to this shrine, to honor the memory of one of his- 
tory's greatest warriors. 

Around this old log house cluster associations 
unsurpassed for intense romantic and dramatic in- 
terest. They comprise situations of the sort that 
enchant and thrill. They stir the depths and touch 
the heights of human feeling. This cabin is the 
central setting of a mighty picture that is unique 
in history. 

To-day a man in early middle age, bowed by toil 
and broken by disappointments, builds a humble 
log house to shelter his little family. He is pro- 
nounced a failure in life by family and friends. 

To-morrow the same man, "lord of a far-flung 
battle line," is chief of all the annies of the greatest 
republic of all time, controlling absolutely the 
movements of a million men, fighting and winning 
battles along a line a thousand miles in length. He 
is pronounced one of the greatest of modern gen- 
erals. He commands the greatest army that ever 
existed, almost twice as big as the one Napoleon 
took into Russia. 

From "Hardscrabble" to the AVhite House was a 
matter of l)ut ten years. From the cabin to a 
major-generalship it was a span of but three years. 
Nine years after (xrant's hands hewed the logs for 
the house and lifted them into place, and six years 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 27 



after he moved out of the cabin, those same hands 
accepted from President Abraham Lincoln a com- 
mission as lieutenant-general of the armies of the 
United States, a rank revived by special act of Con- 
gress in order that the victorious general might be 
elevated thereto and thus be in a povsition to com- 
mand every army in tlie tield, throwing men by hun- 
dreds of thousands against the enemy, from Texas 
to the Maryland shove, and crushing the great re- 
bellion. 

And the cabin built by that disappointed farmer 
and victorious general is the one that has stood for 
nearly fifty years within nine miles of the St. Louis 
courthouse and which last week was transferrecf 
from Edward Joy of Old Orchard to Mr. Blanke. 

Napoleon used to tell how, when a young soldier, 
he walked the pavements of Paris with his shoes in 
shocking condition and was compelled to stand off 
his waslierwoman for want of funds ; liut that was 
merely for an insignificant period in the conquer- 
or's career. Napoleon kne^^' but little of the sting 
of poverty. 

Ulysses S. Grant knew all its bitterness, through 
long, tedious, soul-sickening years of struggle. For 
seven years he lived in St. Louis County, in the 
city of St. Louis and at Galena, 111., feeling every 
day the pinch of pover-ty and stooping under the 
struggle to make a living. 

Something of this long battle with adverse con- 
ditions was told in the ^Magazine supplement of last 
Sunday's Post-Dlsixitdi, in the excerpts from 
Churchill Williams' new novel of St. Louis, "The 



28 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



Captain/' and that story began with the picture of 
Capt Grant hewing the logs for the building of 
the same cabin that has now changed hands. That 
story told, in the limitations of a fictional narra- 
tive, something about the old log house. Now for 
fuller facts and the story of the transfer. 

In the fall of 1854, Ulysses S. Grant, having re- 
signed from the army July 31 of that year, came 
to St. Louis by way of Georgetown, O., his father's 
home. A graduate of West Point, he had received 
a lieutenant's commission and had fought bravely 
through the Mexican War. Married in 1848 to 
Miss Julia Dent, who li^ed out on Gravois road be- 
loAV St. Louis, he had served at several army posts. 
From Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., he had been sent to 
far Fort Vancouver, on the northern Pacific coast, 
and thence to Fort Humboldt, Cal., 240 miles above 
San Francisco. 

His pay as an army oificer was small — much less 
than officers of the same rank receive to-day. He 
could not take his wife and little son, now Gen. 
Frederick Dent Grant, around the Horn to his dis- 
tant post. He sent Mrs. Grant and the child to his 
father's home in Ohio, and shortly after his depart- 
ure a second son was born. Later Mrs. Grant and 
her children went to live at White Haven, her birth- 
place, the liome of Col. Frederick Dent, near this 
city. 

Above all things else, Grant was a home man. 
He loved his family. The separation was unendur- 
able. One day in April, 1854, he received his com- 
mission as a captain. The same day he resigned his 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 29 



commission, to take effect the last day of tlie July 
following. Jefferson Davis, then secretary of war, 
made the final indorsement of approval on the resig- 
nation. 

Grant started immediately to rejoin his family. 
Always of a generous nature, he had loaned sums of 
money to army friends and others Avhom he met 
while in the service. At San Francisco he hoped 
to collect enough from his debtors to carry him to 
his wife and little ones. Those who owed him 
evaded him. He walked the streets of San Fran- 
cisco without a dollar. Chief Quartermaster 
Robert Allen found him in a miserable garret room, 
his head bowed, his face haggard and sorrowful. 
Allen arranged for his transportation to New York, 
and also raised suuie money to supply his daily 
needs on the trip. 

From New York he went to ^A atertown, where 
he hired a horse and rode to Sackett's Harbor in the 
hope of collecting enough money from other debtors 
to bring him to St. Louis. Again he met disap- 
pointment. He returned to New York penniless. 

Capt. Simon B. Buckner, recruiting officer in New 
York, lately a distinguished general and in 1896 
the vice-presidential candidate on the Gold Democ- 
racy's ticket became surety for his hotel bill. Final- 
ly Grant received from his father a sum sufficient 
to tak;e him to his old home in Ohio, where he seems 
to have been received rather coldly. 

The neighbors say that Jesse Grant was deeply 
humiliated by the home-coming of his eldest son in 
such a condition. He had boasted for years of 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



Ulysses, but now he turned to his sons, Simpson 
and Orvil. 

"West Point spoiled one of my boys for business,'' 
he said. 

"I guess that's about so," replied Ulysses, when 
he heard of his father's remark. 

Grant's mother, however, greeted him affection- 
ately^, glad that he had left the army, and was going 
to settle down to a career of peace. 

After a brief visit with his parents. Grant came 
to St. Louis and rejoined his family at Col. Dent's 
home. Thirty-two 3^ears of age, with a wife and 
two children, he had abandoned the military profes- 
sion and its pay and was facing the future without 
a cent. 

Capt. Grant had quit the army to establish a 
home. The wife of his youth, little Fred and the 
boy whom he never had seen until he reached 
White Haven and was met by his family at the gate 
— these had lured him back to civil life. 

Grant had gone to work and built the home, Col. 
Dent setting aside a tract of about 80 acres on the 
old home farm for his use. He did not give Grant 
a deed to the land ; he simply, for Julia's sake, gave 
the Mexican war veteran permission to "take it and 
do what you can with it." Col. Dent, like Jesse 
Grant, was not well pleased with the man who had 
married his daughter. The colonel Avas a southern- 
er, of considerable means, a successful, substantial 
citizen. His son-in-law had reached his thirty-third 
year without laying up a dollar against the future. 
Old neighbors of the Dents still recall uncompli- 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 31 



iiientary language used b}' Col. Dent in alluding to 
Capt. Grant. 

Ordinary men would be prone to sink under such 
handicaps. ( Jrant stood erect. His wife loved and 
honored him. Cheerfully she shared his hardships. 
That winter and the next spring and summer the 
ex-captain cut wood, plowed for wheat, hoed corn, 
bound AAiieat behind the keen cradles of his father- 
in-law's darkey slaves, and was a farmers man of 
all work. He had worked on a farm in his boy- 
hood, and while stationed on the Pacific coast, he 
had raised a large crop of potatoes, in the hope of 
making some money for his family. Potatoes were 
selling at ^[) per luisiiel when he planted his crop. 
When he dug the tul)ers they were worthless, for 
everybody else had raised a large crop, and Grant 
paid some men to haul the potatoes out of his way. 
There were other agricultural disappointments to 
come. 

In the late fall of 1854, the haiwest over. Grant 
began the work of cutting trees from which to hew 
the timbers of the log house that has now been sold. 
He worked early and late. Oak and elm fell before 
his onslaught. He fought it out on that line all the 
fall, and at last was ready for "the raisin'." There 
are many venerable citizens of St. Louis who recall, 
with fond recollection, the house-raisings of those 
old days. Such neighborhood functions were of fre- 
quent occurrence, and yet not so frequent as to lose 
their charm. When the pioneer had hewed his logs 
and hauled them to the site of his future home he 
went through the countryside notifying his neigh- 



32 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



bors that upon a certain day "the raisiu' " wouki 
take place. Bright and early came the neighbors, 
to assist the house-builder in raising the timbers 
into place. There was a dinner spread on th<? 
ground, and hard cider and ginger cakes kept the 
workers cheerful. 

GKANT GAVE A LIFT AT HIS HOUSE- 
RAISING. 

Grant's house-raising was no whit different from 
the others in its immediate aspect ; but in its histor- 
ical significance it was vastly different. The neioh- 
bors, that autumn day who stood at the corners, 
Grant standing at one corner, and heaved the hewn 
logs into their position, had high respect for "the 
captain," because he was known to them as a vet- 
eran of the jNIexican war, and as a former officer of 
the regular army. They respected him also be- 
cause he was a hard worker, like themselves, and 
a good family man. They liked him for his manly 
qualities. 

But those men at the house-raising reserved their 
thrill for six or seven years thereafter, when the 
man who had stood at the left-hand front corner 
of the log cabin during the raising had passed 
Sliiloh and Donelson and Vicksburg, and "the cap- 
tain" was wearing the double star of a major-gen- 
eral, whose name was applauded by millions. 

It required a day to place the logs. Grant then 
laid the floors and helped a carpenter to fit the win- 
dow frames. He also did the greater part of the 
shingling, and built the stairway that leads to the 
two big, low rooms in the gal)le loof. 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 33 

When the house was completed, Grant moved his 
family into it. His father-in-law's big white house, 
a mansion in those days, bore a name of its own. 
Grant i>ave his cabin a distinctive name. 

"We'll call it Hardscrabble," he said, probably 
wondering how the master of White Haven would 
like the name. 

And it was hard scrabbling for Grant during the 
next few years. He was a tireless worker. He 
plowed and planted, he sowed and reaped. He hoed 
when days were dry and hammered when it rained. 

There were other farmers in the neighborhood 
who piled up much wood cut in clearing land and 
burnt it. Grant was more economical. He cut his 
trees into cord wood and liauled the product by the 
wagon load into St. Louis and sold it. Much of it 
he cut into props for the lead mines many miles 
south of his farm and hauled to that district, where 
he sold it. 

Ulysses S. Grant was a teamster. He owned two 
excellent horses, which he had purchased through 
Charles Ford, at that time manager of the United 
States Express Company's office in St. Louis. The 
animals were strong and reliable, and Grant made 
pets of them. He was kind to his team, say his 
neighbors, and they cheerfully pulled bigger loads 
than any horses in the section were able to do. 

Once Grant hauled 60 bushels of whea^t into St. 
Louis at a load. Old Mr. Sappington, a neighbor, 
told Grant he had heard that story, but didn't be- 
lieve it. Grant offered to pit his team against Sap- 
ington's. "We'll both load on 60 bushels," he said, 



34 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



"and if I get to St. Louis witlioiit other aid and you 
don't, the two h)ads are mine. If you get tliere 
without aid and I don't, tlie 120 bnsliels are yours." 

Sappington smiled and said," Well, cap'n, I don't 
see how you do it." 

Tliere was no false pride about Ulysses S. Grant. 
Clad in his old blue army overcoat and his high 
army boots, which lasted him ten years after his 
resignation from the army, he used to haul wood to 
Jefferson Barracks, where as a young brevet lieu- 
tenant he had shone in society and from which 
he had ridden out on his fine horse to court Col. 
Dent's daughter. At the barracks he sometimes 
met old army associates, ^^'ho sneered at the shab- 
by-looking farmer. Grant appeared not to notice 
the sneers. He was trying to make a living for his 
family. In the big log cabin was a busy housewife 
surrounded Ijy her children, and that was home — 
something he never knew Avhen he was in the army. 

"Hardscrabble" was a haven of rest during the 
long winter evenings. Neighbors came in and 
played checkers with the captain, who it is said, 
nearly always won. A little later he played with 
like success up a vastly larger checkerboard. In 
those days of hard and humble life he was learn- 
ing to do and to endure; he was being disciplined 
for a greater game. 

Thus life went on, a humdrum life except for the 
wife and babies ; gru))bing, hoeing, hauling, Grant 
began to grow old, ai)parently. He permitted his 
beard to grow, so that lie looked much older than 
he was. I'erhaps he felt old. It is known that he 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 35 



made but little headway in his farming and that he 
was deeply discouraged, but he made little com- 
plaint. A slight stoop appeared in his shoulders. 
His old military clothes became shabbier and shab- 
bier. His family had food, for food was plentiful 
and cheap, and the house was kept warm in winter 
by heaps of wood in the big old-fashioned fireplaces 
at each end of the cabin ; but Grant's health failed ; 
he caught chills and fever and grew sallow, and 
seeing nothing in prospect but the same sort of pa- 
tient, pitiless, uuremuuerative toil, he was almost 
beaten; almost, but not quite. That was not 
Grant's way. 

His more prosperous fellow farmers began to 
refer to him as a failure. "He can't succeed at 
farming," they said; "why, he couldn't even raise 
potatoes when he was in the army." 

Old Col. Dent shared this opinion. He was deep- 
ly disappointed in his son-in-law. In 1857 Mrs. 
Dent died, and Col. Dent removed to St. Louis. 
Capt. Grant was placed in charge of White Haven, 
moving out of the dear old cabin, "Hardscrabble." 
He was in control of the negro slaves. A historian 
of the period says: "He was a poor slave-driver, 
however; the negroes did pretty much as they 
pleased." 

Late in 1858, racked with the ague, he gave up 
farming and determined to get a foothold in St. 
Louis. ' Col. Dent, doubtless agreeing with Ulysses 
in this change, secured for him a partnership with 
Harry Boggs in the real estate business, the firm 
of Boggs vi Grant having desk room in a dingy of- 



36 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



fice on Pine street, between Second and Third 
streets. Grant boarded with the Boij;j»ses, leaving 
his family at the farm for the winter. 

But he was a failure as a real estate man. He 
couldn't sell or rent property. He lacked the fac- 
ulty of bartering, bargaining, cajoling customers in- 
to doing business. Boggs soon discovered this, and 
Grant was let down and out of the firm. Once more 
the ex-captain was thrown upon his own resources. 
He tried to secure the appointment as county engi- 
neer, a position for which, by reason of his West 
Point education, he was eminently fitted. He 
failed. The defeat was a bitter disappointment. 

Meanwhile he had moved his family into St. 
Louis, having made a trade for "Hardscrabble" for 
a house and lot on Lynch street. It was a bad trade, 
showing that he Avas not a real estate expert. The 
title proved defective, and he was forced to give up 
the house, moving into one much humbler. 

Grant secured a custom house clerkship. Next 
month the collector of customs died, and Grant 
again walked the streets looking for work. He 
owed his landlord. He was almost at his wits' end. 

"It seemed to him," says one who remembere 
it, "that the future promised only cold and hunger 
for him and his. He acknowledged his inability to 
make a living in St. Louis and went to his father 
an apparentl}^ defeated man." 

His father and brothers gave him a position at a 
salary of |50 a month in their leather store at Ga- 
lena, and Grant was glad to get the job. That was 
in 1860. A year later he leaped into fame and un- 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 37 



dvino" glory. 

Edward Joy, who has owned the Grant cabin 
since 1891, when asked last week why he admires 
Gen. Grant so highly, replied : 

"Because Grant had the most man in him of any 
man I ever heard of. All through his life he 
shoA^ed the very highest qualities of manhood. He 
would not accept Lee's sword at Appomattox, and 
he told the surrendered Confederates to take their 
horses and ride home and put in their crops." 

Mr. Joy is now 82 years of age. He has lived 
in the vicinity of St. Louis since 1873, engaged in 
the real estate business. How he came to buy the 
Grant cabin he thus explained last week : 

''In 1891 I was out driving with an old friend, 
a lady, and we passed down the Gravois road and 
out the old Kidge road, ^[y companion said, 'See 
that log house out there in the woods? Gen. Grant 
built that and lived in it.' I was interested at 
once, and before I got back home I determined to 
buy the house if it could be bought. Luther Conn 
owned the Dent place and the cabin. I made him 
an ofPer of |4,000 for the cabin. The next day he 
came to my office and said that for |5,000 I could 
have it. I gave him my check for |3,000 and my 
note for the balance, at 60 days. I paid the note 
when it became due and owned the Grant log cabin 
absolutely. 

Mr. Joy built a liigh board fence around the 
cabin, to keep intruders away, and induced a family 
to live in it and take care of the relic. Frank Pel- 
soe, a mail carrier, is the present occupant. A 



38 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



woman from Kentucky, a member of the household, 
who shows properly accredited visitors through the 
wide rooms, remarked last week to the Sunday 
Post-Dispatch : 

"They say that Mr. Grant himself stood at that 
front corner and raised the logs the day of the 
raising. Well, I've seen a good many log houses in 
Kentucky, where the building of them is something 
of an art, and I must say that in my opinion, Mr. 
Grant was a much greater warrior than he was an 
architect." 

Mr. Joy says that he understands that Gen. 
Grant owned the cabin for some years after the 
war and visited it. Mrs. Grant also paid a visit to 
"Hardscrabble" after her trip around the world 
with the general. While there, she met many old 
friends, who were forced to acknowledge that 
Ulysses had amounted to something, though they 
still held that he was not much of a farmer. 

Mr. Conn, from whom Mr. Joy bought the cabin, 
purchased the estate from William H. Vanderbilt, 
it is stated. When Ferdinand A^'ard wrecked the 
firm of Grant & Ward in 1884, Gen. Grant turned 
over the property to Vanderbilt, one of his largest 
creditors. Grant remarked to Vanderbilt that he 
did not have |100 in the world. The next year, at 
Mount McGregor, the old warrior died, fighting 
against adverse fortune to the very last. 

Mr. Blanke, the new owner of "Hardscrabble," 
is a W^orld's Fair director. He is arranging to re- 
move the cabin to the Fair site and rebuild it upon 
a location that may be permanent. He will make 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 39 



a proposition to the city whereby the cabin may 
remain in Forest Park. 

ROBERTUS LOVE. 
In Post I)isi)atcJf, March 15, 1003 




DKODUuaims 



aa3 FIFTH .V'KNUE 
NEW YORK 



March ?P, 1904. 



C. P. Blanke 

St. Louis, Mo. 
Dear Sirs; " 

We beg to acknowledge with thanks the receipt 
of the two logs you ware good enough to send us from the 
Log Cabin built by General Grant In 1854. 

This wood has been used by us In making a frame 
for the sat of resolutions made by the Board of Trustees 
of the St. Louis Public Library to Andrew Carnegie, Esq., 
In acknowledgment of his donation of One Million Dollars 
for the building of a Public Library In St. Louis. 
Very truly yours. 




40 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 




^^s^K^^^^^iSS^S^vfe 



GEN. JNO. W. NOBLE. 

Born at Lancaster, 

Ohio, Oct. 26. 1831 

His father, Colonel 

John Noble, was a man 

of military training and was well 

k no w n throughout Ohio. His 

mother, whose maiden name was 

Catharine McDill, was a native of 

Maryland. 

.John Willock Noble received his 
earlier education In the common 
schools St Cincinnati, afterwards 
at Miami University, and ^ater at 
Yale, graduating at the latter in 
the class of 1851. 

Upon his return home he studied law in the office of Henry 
Stanbery, afterwards Attorney General of the United States. 
He also studied law in the office of his brother, Henry C. 
Noble, at Columbus, Ohio, was admitted to tlie bar in 1853, 
removed to St. Louis, where he was admitted to the bar in 
1855. In 1856 he removed to Keokuk, Iowa, and formed a co- 
partnership with Ralph P. Lowe, who was afterwards Gov- 
ernor of that state. 

He was busily engaged in his law practice when the war 
broke out, but abandoned his practice to enlist in the army. 
His first engagement was the battle of Athens, Mo. He was 
appointed First Lieutenant, Company C, Third Iowa Cavalry, 
and soon afterwards appointed Regimental Adjutant. 

He gradually arose from First Lieutenant to Colonel, and 
was breveted Brigadier General for distinguished and meri- 
torious services in the field. He participated in the battle of 
Pea Ridge, also the siege and fall of Vicksburg and the sec- 
ond battle at Jackson. 

The regiment, having re-enlisted, was under his command 
in a number of engagements against Forest in Tennessee 
and Mississippi. He also participated in the cavalry campaign 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 41 



under General James H. Wilson, through Alabama and 
Georgia. He was at the head of his regiment in the night 
attack on the works of Columbus, Ga., in which he was vic- 
torious, and en account of the excellent service rendered, 
Colonel Noble and his regiment were put in command of the 
city during the stay of the army there. 

While he was almost continuously with his regiment, he 
served for awhile under General Samuel R. Curtis, first as 
Judge Advocate General of the Army of the Southwest, and 
afterwards as Judge Advocate in the Department of the Mis- 
souri. 

During the war he was married to Miss Lizabeth Hal- 
stead at Northampton, Mass. At the close of the war he re- 
turned to Iowa, but soon after decided to make St. Louis his 
home. He was appointed District Attorney in 1867 and was 
e.xceptionally energetic and successful as a prosecutor, his 
services attracting the attention of President Grant, who 
thanked him before his Cabinet for the faithful performance 
of his duties. The President afterwards tendered him the 
office of Solicitor General, but he declined, preferring to con- 
tinue at his regulTr practice. 

General Noble has always been exceptionally successful as 
a lawyer, and it would be impossible to enumerate here the 
numbr of cases which he has handled successfully, cases in- 
volving large sums of money, corporations anti municipalities. 

In 1889 he was appointed Secretary of the Interior by Presi- 
dent Harrison, and in 1893 resumed the practice of law at the 
St. Louis bar. 

The following is a verbatim report of a speech delivered 
by Gen. Noble before the Union Club of Philadelphia: 



"GRANT IN EARLIER DAYS." 
The Chair: — I will now ask you to drink a per- 
sonal toast, in honor of a distinguished guest — one 
of the high officers of the State — who comes to us 
from the executive family of President Harrison. 
Honor an<l liealth to John ^V. Noble, the Secretary 
of the Interior (loud applause), and in doing so 
we bid him hearty welcome to the Union League. 



42 PERSONATv REMINISCENCES 



We welcome him not alone because of his great of- 
fice, whose duties he discliaroes with such universal 
acceptance; not alone as one near to the President, 
the friend of his early years ; not alone as a repre 
sentative of the vast and growing West, whose im- 
minent empire overshadows the land, but as among 
those modest, faithful forces in Kepublican citizen- 
ship, long reigning in silent useful ways, and com- 
ing when duty calls to serve his country as states- 
man and counsellor. 

Gentlemen, the health of the Secretary of the In 
terior. 

SPEECH OF HON. JOHN W. NOBLE, 
Secretary of the Interior. 

As Mr. Noble rose he was loudly cheered. When 
silence was restored he said : 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: — It is indeed a 
distinguished and pleasing honor to be your guest 
to-night. This I attribute rather to my oflQce than 
myself, and in no small degree to my association 
with the Post-Master General. To-day, in company 
with the President and your distinguished fellow- 
citizen, I have looked upon one of the most signifi- 
cant tributes that our country now or in the coming 
years can pay to the memory of Ulysses S. Grant. 
(Applause.) I come from where was this great 
man's home in the days of his poverty and toil ; and 
I fully realize the contrast between his prospects 
then and the fame and esteem that the American 
people now give his name and in which they hold 
his memory. (Applause.) 

When to-day in the city of New York her vast 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 43 



commercial marts were all closed, and hundreds of 
thousands of men and women assend)led on the side 
of the river with uncovered heads, to lay the corner 
stone of the tomb of Grant, we recognize there was 
something in the character of the man that in a mo- 
mentous period of our national life united him 
deeply and everlastingly with the spirit of our peo- 
ple. (Applause.) 

What was the scmrce of this? 

I have been in the log cabin that Grant reared 
near St. Louis. It was such as our forefathers built 
when they were first mastering the wilderness of 
this vast continent. The logs that composed the 
fabric were hewn by his own hand, and the struc- 
ture was erected in a queer old western fashion, at 
what is called "a raising." I have conversed with 
one now living (Henry C. Wright, of St. Louis), 
who in those days was a man of considerable pos- 
sessions and was one of those present at that gath- 
ering of the neighbors. He had a mill, and he has 
told me of the days when Captain (xrant came with 
his grain upon his horse with Nellie, his daughter, 
seated behind liim, and waited until the grain was 
ground, and then took the meal home in the even- 
ing to his own fireside. (Applause.) 

I have heard the stories of those men who saw 
him cutting what he called ''props" from the oak, 
or "black jack," on his farm, of sufficient strength 
to keep asunder the sides of the mine and taking 
them to the coal mines near St. Louis to sell for five 
dollars a load, and then riding home in his empty 
wagon, with the proceeds of his labor. (Applause.) 



44 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



An incident occurred in his life ( witnesses of which 
have told it to me) worthy of note as indicative of 
his character. At the corner of the roads near 
Grant's home, where there was a blacksmith shop, 
some of his neighbors were assembled and the Cap- 
tain came by, after he had sold his load. They were 
discussing the misfortunes of another neighbor, a 
German, who the night before had lost his all in a 
conflagration that consumed his home, destroyed 
his furniture and all his cooking utensils and left 
him and his wife and children without shelter and 
without means. The question was what were they 
to do? Grant, coming along in his empty wagon, 
heard the story ; and he said : ''I know that man — 
he is a good man. I have five dollars, the proceeds 
of my load, give it to him. It is all I have — I wish 
I had more to give." (Applause.) 

There is unveiled on Twelfth street, in St. Louis, 
a statue of Grant as he stood on the battlefield, 
and it is not far distant from the spot where he sold 
cord wood, cut with his own hand. 

It is asked, why it is our people turn out in count- 
less multitudes from all quarters of the city of 
New York when his funeral procession goes by ; or 
when the corner stone of his nmusoleum is laid, or 
whj^ his birthday is celebrated in many great cities, 
as here to-night; I reply because they recognize 
he was a man in sympathy with the people, and 
loved the government because it was the best that 
people could have, a free constitutional govern- 
ment. 

When the war broke out and the question was 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 45 



whether labor such as he had performed was to be 
dignified or degraded, Grant, impelled by self-re- 
spect, elevated by his manly nature and taught by 
severe experience, declared for free labor and the 
equality of all men before the law. He entered the 
Union Army because in that organized force was 
the power to maintain these principles and there 
was a necessity for its immediate use. He became 
first a mustering officer, then a colonel, by the 
friendship of Washburne and by the more distin- 
guished favor of the Governor of Illinois. But he 
spoke and wrote as a man as well as served as a sol- 
dier. Among the first letters he then penned, was 
one to a relative saying to him with an emphasis 
few men in the Republic of that day used, in sub- 
stance: "It is inevitable that this war must lead 
to the extinguishment of slavery, and it is high 
time that if you value such property as you have 
you get rid of it, for believe me, there will be no re- 
sult other than that of the destruction of all value 
in it." 

He was not a man of pretentious superiority ; he 
was great and self-reliant; but he was of the utmost 
simplicity in thought and method. 

In his memoirs lie narrates, you remember, that 
he was doubtful of his capacity to handle his com- 
mand in the presence of the enemy then behind the 
hill. What should he do when they met? His heart 
was full, his mind troubled, but as he ascended the 
hill, he found that the enemy's camp was deserted 
and he was the possessor of the field, and he says he 
found that the enemv was more afraid than he was. 



I 



46 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



( Applause. ) That lesson he carried on through the 
war, and the first exercise of it was at Donelson. 
He had determined that if a man of aggressive force 
was met by a counter force, he must be still more 
aggressive in the contest. The battle had lasted 
for some time and after a bitter fight both sides 
rested; Grant said whoever first began the fight 
anew would win, and he immediately gave the order 
for firing and the advance. The result was that the 
rebels were beaten and made the unconditional sur- 
render of the fort. But as has been said here to- 
night, when these successes were secured, it was not 
for Grant ; he did not consider that the victory was 
for him, but he deemed it was for his country, it 
was for the plain people, and the principles that 
would succor them and save free institutions. His 
heart all the time went out not only to the soldiers 
of the North that were supporting him, but to the 
whole people of our country, that they might be 
ga;thered under the wings and the brooding care of 
the Republic. 

Subsequently, after the great battle of Shiloh, 
the victory at Vicksburg, Mission Ridge, and other 
great strategic combinations — victories we are so 
proud to celebrate — he came to the culminating 
period of his military career. Riding by night and 
riding by day, in a blouse, without military marks 
of rank, everlastingly moving by his left flank 
against Lee, who had to meet him constantly at 
some new point more dangerous to Richmond. Lee, 
who has been eulogized by many whose testimony 
has in it all the force of his own admirers, after the 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 47 



battle of the AYilderness had been visited by the 
commanders of his different military corps. The 
battle there had l)een bloody and the Union forces 
not having gained any signal success it was antici- 
pated that there would be again, as under previous 
generals, a retreat upon Washington. But while 
these Confederate warriors were gathered around 
their chief, an aid-de-camp rode in and said, "Tlie 
enemy (that is (Irant) is moving by his left flank 
towards Richmond!" Lee arose and said to his 
men, "To your posts, the order is to move by our 
right flank. The Uni(m Army has at last found .i 
General." (Applause.) 

At last Grant came to Appomattox and the clos- 
ing scene. In the presence of Lee, with his own 
hand, on a piece of paper no greater than that 
(holding up a menu about ten inches scjuare) he 
wrote the terms of capitulation. You have seen the 
fac simile in his memoirs. A remarkable paper in 
military history. Written by a General in com- 
mand of the greatest forces the world has ever seen, 
without an adjutant-general or other assistant. 
Fixing the destiny not only of the hundreds of thou- 
sands of the capitulating forces, but of a whole na- 
tion. As Grant looked up he saw that General Lee 
had on his sword and full insignia of rank in antici- 
pation that there would be performed one of those 
dramatic scenes on the theater of war, of the sur- 
render of one great general of his sword to the other 
and greater one. But Grant was not fighting for 
Grant, he was not fighting for theatrical effect, he 
had been fighting for the people, and had labored 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



I 



all these years to preserve tlie Union; and as he 
looked up and saw that sword, he wrote: "The 
arms, artillery and public property to be parked 
and stacked, and turned over to the officer ap- 
pointed by me to receive them. This will not em- 
brace the side arms of officers, nor their private 
horses or baggage." ( Applause. ) 

After that, and after the terms of that great 
capitulation were made, the Southern army was to 
disband. The question arose as to what was to be 
done with the horses that the enlisted men had been 
riding. Thev Avere not included within the strict 
terms of this capitulation, but the General said, 
with the memory of the days when on his own farm 
he had plowed the soil, where he had cut wood, "Let 
them take their horses with them, they will need 
them for the Spring plowing." (Applause.) 

When President of these United States, as was 
mentioned by my eloquent friend, the Postmaster- 
General, and as the Senator from Vermont ex- 
pressed it, he was as practical a man as has ever 
filled that station. He filled it with honor and 
most ditinguished ability. Afterwards he took 
that memorable journey around the world. This 
former farmer, this former hewer of wood and 
drawer of water, in the great Republic that gives 
any man a chance to rise to the highest place, vis- 
ited the far distant regions of the earth and the is- 
lands of the sea, an invited and most welcome guest. 
Monarchs and nations uncovered in his presence 
and bowed before the greatness of the man. (Ap- 
plause. ) He was feasted at Windsor Castle by the 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 49 



Queen; who, I am proud to say, iu all the dark 
hours of our war for the Union, — whatever her 
ministers may have intended — was the friend of 
freedom. (iVpplause.) It was she who said, when 
they wanted her to declare that the Southern States 
were entitled to the rights of an independent na- 
tion, "As I understand it, they are fighting- for slav- 
ery, and the North is fighting for freedom. I will 
approve no such order." (Applause.) 

He returned to Liverpool, you remend)er, after 
his reception at AVindsor Castle, and there many 
thousands of workingmen came to visit him and 
pay their respects. To them he said, in the simplic- 
ity of his character and the grandeur of his nature, 
that it was the most interesting visit and the most 
grateful honor that he had I'eceived since he had 
left his native land. 

He came back. He was a man among us after 
that. He undertook to assume the cares of daily 
life once more, not thinking but that on any field 
integrity and labor and courage would succeed. He 
did not calcukite upon the dispositions of others. 
Let me narrate an episode connecting the life of the 
great man more directly with yourselves. The citi- 
zens of rhiladelphia during the war had honored 
him. You endeavored to put into his possession 
some recognition of the sacrifices he had made. Let 
me read abetter that was sent by him to Mr. Knight 
at the time. It is in his own hand : 
Headquarters of the 

Armv of the I*otomac. 

Citv Point, Va., January 4, 1865. 



50 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



Messrs. Geo. H. Stuart, A. E. Borie, Wm. C. 
Kent, E. C Knight, Davis Pearson, Geo. W. 
VV^hituey and James Ch-aliam, Committee. 

Gentlemen : — Through 3'ou the lo^^al citizens of 
Phihidelphia have seen tit to present me with house 
and hjt and furniture in your beautiful city. The 
letter notifying me of this is just received. It is 
with feelings of gratitude that I accept this sub- 
stantial testimonial of the esteem of your loyal citi- 
zens. Gratitude, because it is evidence of a deep 
set determination on the part of a large number of 
citizens that this war shall go on until the Union 
is restored. ( Ap])lause ) Pride that mj humble ef- 
forts in so great a cause should attract such a token 
from a city of strangers to me. 

I will not predict a day when y.e will have peace 
again a\ ith a Union restored. But that that day 
will come is as sure as the rising of to-morrow's 
sun. I have never doubted tins in the darkest days 
of this dark and terrible rebellion. 

Until this happy day of peace does come, my fam- 
ily will occupy and enjoy your magnificent pres- 
ent. But until that, I do not expect, nor desire to 
see much of the enjoyments of a home fireside. 

I have the honor to be with great respect, 
Your ob't serv't, 
U. S. Grant. Lt. Gen., U. S. A. 

Your munificence bestowed on him other gifts, 
and here is a letter from him in his own handwrit- 
ing: 
Headquarters Armirs of 

the United States. 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 51 



Washington, January 26, 1867. 

Dear Sir: — I have tlie lionor to acknowledge re- 
ceipt of the policies of insurance on my I'hila- 
(lelphia house which you have been kind enough to 
present me with. The kindness of the Philadelphia 
public as well as the individual kindness of the in- 
surance companies represented by you, will be ever 
remembered by me most gratefully. 

Please present my thanks to the Pennsylvania, 
Delaware ^Mutual and North American Insurance 
Companies for their favor. 

With great respect, your ob't s'vt, 

U . S. GiiANT^ General. 
To E. C. Knight, Esq., Phil., Pa. 

This property was worth, as I am told by Mr. 
Knight, now by my side, |52,000. The man to 
whom that was given a\ as a man who had earned 
his living as we have seen ; an American who never 
kne^^• a\ hat it was to owe a debt that he could not 
pay. That honored man liad commanded the 
forces of the whole Republic, but in the integrity of 
his heart, and the utter simplicity of his nature 
he had gone into the depths and dangers of Wall 
street and established a banking company, in Miiich 
he was more or less responsible. Having sim^u so 
many men face the cannon's mouth for the love of 
man, he continued to believe that all men were time. 
He M as deceived. He lost all, became in debt, and 
for his honor be it known that he began to sell all 
that he had in order to pay his debts. Your sacred 
gift was given for his country's honor and his repu- 
tation, that was hers. (Applause.) 



52 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



But even a sadder hour came on. Sickness and 
disease assailed him, and death, Avith relentless 
power advanced upon him, closer and closer day 
after dav. Still he felt that the work upon which 
he had entered would not be completely achieved 
unless these States were united, and fellow feeling 
and friendship restored among all our people. 
From the sympathy extended to him in these long 
hours of trial, by the South as well as the North, 
he gained the hope that the wounds of war were 
being closed. He began in these days and finished 
amid these emotions his "Memoirs." In his dying 
hours, by this work wrought out amid physical 
anguish and in the presense of death, he did as 
much by his pen to re-establish love for our institu- 
tions as in the day of battle he had accomplished 
by his sword in maintaining the flag. All our peo- 
ple throughout the whole land alike mourned his 
death. 

There Avas a scene I witnessed symbolical of this 
result. At the time I was in the city of New York, 
as a citizen of St. Louis upon the committee from 
that community that was to do honor in the funeral 
procession of General Grant. The long procession 
was already moving up Fifth avenue, the slow 
throbbing of the muffled drum was heard, scarcely 
audible. In the hall of the hotel at the parlor door 
is a canopy of velvet curtains. While waiting in 
the hall for the catafalque that bore the remains of 
Grant to his resting place on Riverside, I saw sud- 
denly appear at the door a gallant officer in full 
dress, with all his military insignia. It was Wil- 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 53 

liam T. Sherman, the commander of the Army of 
the United States. The full exponent of the power 
of the Republic to preserve its own existence, as he 
and Grant had shown it could do. And as he stood 
beneath this door another figure came from the op- 
posite side, A military man, too, of slighter stat- 
ure, dressed in citizen's clothes, with no badges of 
authority. He took the hand of Sherman. It was 
the ex-Confederate General, Joe Johnston. And, 
then, as the time had arrived, Johnston took the 
arm of Sherman and they moved down the hall, en- 
tered the carriage and followed the body of Grant 
to Riverside, doing the equal honor to the man that 
had saved the Union. (Applause.) 

There followed in that line many a regiment 
from the North, whose glories have here to-night 
been eulogized ; and from the South, from the old 
Confederate Army, with flags draped and furled, 
recognizing the condition of things that had been 
brouglit about by this great chieftain all were hon- 
oring. The masses of the people of every condition 
in life and of every shade in political sentiment, 
filled the avenues and crowded the highest build- 
ings from base to roof, all with sad and apprecia- 
tive hearts. ' 

Gentlemen, may it not now be said upon these 
proofs that the element in that man's character ele- 
vating him as a military man and as a civil magis- 
trate was born in the hours when he was in experi- 
ence, condition of life and sympathy one of the 
plain people! loving his wife and children in pur- 
ity and trust ; supported by his own industry, be- 



54 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



stowing- his small means for charity and living the- 
courageous life of a whole-souled man — a patriotic 
American. Now or through the coming ages there 
is and will be no monument of granite or gold that 
can increase the love and honor for Grant, as it 
rests and will renmin in the hearts of our people, 
who recognize in him not only the great soldier 
but the great man. (Applause.) 




^;^^^2^^H/^ 




OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 



55 







R 1 C H A U D M. 
JOHNSON was 
born in Illinois in 
the city of Belle- 
ville. He received 
his early education 
in Mc K e n d r e e 
College. Coming to St. 
Louis in 1858, he read lavf 
in the office of his orother, 
Governor Johnson. In 18G1 
he was appointed a clerK 
in the Postoffice Depart- 
ment, and in 1S62 was ten- 
dered a position as chief 
corresponding clerk in 
General Grant's headquar- 
ters, under Quartirmaster 
Colonel Chas. A. Reynolds. In 1865 he was appointed Super- 
intendent of the State Tobacco Warehouse by Governor 
Fletcher. He was married to Miss Annie Blow, daughter of 
Taylor Blow of St. Louis, in 1866. 

Appointed by General Grant in 1867 as Post Trader at 
Fort Dodge. Kan., and in 1869 he accepted an appointment 
tendered him by Gsneral Grant as Consul to Han Kow, China, 
which office he held with credit for eight years. Two of 
Colonel Johnson's children were born in China. He returned 
to the United States and resumed the practice of law in 
1877. He was elected Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in 1894, 
and was again elected in 1898, and while he has always been 
active in politics as a Republican, he numbers among his 
friends, regardless of political affiliations, as many Demo- 
crats as Republicans. 

The anecdotes that follow are by Colonel Richard M. John- 
son, and not only call attention to the qualities known to 
the world of General Grant's characteristics as a commander 
whose word was considered by all his subordinates as law, 
but Colonel Dick relates several experiences of a humorous 
vein that are refreshing and entertaining, and they are told 



56 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



in a manner that is inimical and so characteristic of Colonel 
Dick. 



When I look back tliroiigli the years that have 
been wiped from the calendar of time, there arises 
vividly before me the image and acts of the old 
commander, Gen. U. S. Grant. Out of the niches of 
memory 1 gather some of the personal reminis- 
cences of the man from Appomatox, and the famous 
ap])le tree. 

With all the enthusiasm of a young man, when 
the civil war was stirring all the patriotism of our 
beings into action, I first became attached to Gen. 
Grant's command in the Department of the West, 
and my admiration for the man and the soldier w^as 
awakened at once, and it has grown through all the 
passing years until I came to revere the memory 
of the liero of battle and the bard of peace. The 
man whom Charles P. Johnson once designated as 
the "greatest citizen of the Republic, and therefore 
the greatest citizen of the world," I looked up to in 
my younger days and now I look back to with the 
more profound admiration of mature years. 

"The silent man," as Gen. Grant was called, has 
said more in fewer words and done more by positive 
action to make his history immortal than any man 
of his time. 

I feel to-day that it was a great privilege to have 
been associated with the "silent" but positive com- 
mander of the Army of the Tennessee. 

It was along early in 1862, when I was an em- 
ploye of the Post Office, that I met one day upon the 
streets of St. Louis Mr. Jas. W. Way, a well-known 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 57 



citizen, who still lives, and is noAV the consulting 
engineer of the Missouri Pacific system. The gen- 
tleman informed me that there was a chance for a 
young man or two to get right to the front, and 
right into the theatre of war by the stage entrance. 

I was physically disqualified for sei*\'ice in the 
field where the old Springfield rifle was arbiter of 
destiny and the brazen cannon the mouth-piece of 
millions. But there was an opening, said my friend 
Way, for a young man in the quartermaster's de- 
partment, and there was an emergency call for such 
a patriot right near the firing lines. I realized how 
true was the old adage : ''Where there is a will there 
is a Way," and in my case it was Jas. W. 

Before the daAvn of the fourth day after meeting 
my friend, 1 had passed down over the old South- 
western railway and reported at Gen. Grant's head- 
quarters for duty, at the famous battle ground of 
Pittsburg Landing on the shores of the Tennessee. 

The day that I first met Cien. (iraut, at the front, 
was a memorable one to me, giving me the first real 
insight into the character of the man and the sol- 
dier. 

I had just dismounted from a splendid pony, 
rather tlian a liorse, when the General came up, 
and with his fondness for horses he stopped and 
stroked the i)ony's head in a gentle, caressing way, 
which was so characteristic of the man. 

The General spoke to me kindly, and in a way 
that put me at once at my ease. Tliere was none of 
the pomp or arrogance of many an officer of lesser 
rank than he in his mann(a* when he said : 



58 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



"That is a fine little animal. Does it belong to 
you?" 

"No, General ; tlie pony is government property," 
I replied. 

"What may its name be, please?" further asked 
the General, as he continued to make friends with 
my pony. 

"General Grant," I promptly replied. 

"Ah, indeed !" he remarked, without the slightest 
change in his manner. "You might have given liira 
a more wortliy name," and then turning to me he 
asked : "What is your name?" 

"Richard M. Johnson, of St. Louis," I replied as 
I saluted the General. 

Reaching out his liand he took mine in his friend- 
ly grasp, remarking in a sincere but kindly voice: 

"I am glad to have met you, Mr. Johnson," and 
then the man who was destined to show the world 
that he was the greatest soldier of the age Avhen 
war existed, and still a greater man of peace when 
Gen. Lee and his army of Northern Virginia low- 
ered their banners and the clash of arms had 
ceased. 

The more I saw of Gen. Grant during my stay 
in the service, and I had occasion to be near him 
very often, for the General took a liking to me from 
the start, which you all can appreciate was very 
gratifying to a young man in my position, who en- 
tertained such proud admiration for him. 

The simple sincerity of the General first attracted 
me to him. His kind, fatherly Avay toward me made 
me venerate the araudeur and the strenoth of his 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 59 



character. 

He was the most positive, self-reliant man that 
God ever inspired with the breath of life. He was 
gentle in his relations with his officers and men, 
but firm and inflexible when his mind was made 
np and the battle was at hand. The staff did the 
talkino- — the old commander the thinking and act- 
ing. He never blnstered or blasphemed. TTis men 
knew their commander never vacillated, and when 
his commands were given to "press the center,'' the 
center was pressed. 

The one single act that bronght Gen. Grant more 
prominently before the American people than any 
others, and gave to the world an insight into his 
true character, Avas the letter he wrote to Gen. 
Bnckner, the Confederate commander at Fort Don- 
elson, in Febrnary, 1862, in denmnding the sur- 
render of the stronghold. He said : 

"No terms except an immediate and uncondi- 
tional surrender can be accepted. I propose to 
move immediately upon your works.'' 

Those immortal A\'ords were not uttered nor writ- 
ten in the heat of i>assion, but they were so force- 
ful and convincing in their terseness and so ]iositive 
and pointed, that they inspired the heart of the na- 
tion to new hope and turned its watchful eyes to the 
"silent" soldier as the man the country had watched 
and waited for after placing its trust in so many 
commanders, who proved either "short in the 
reach," or too slow in attempting to land a knock- 
out blow. 

It is not mx intention to make these reminis- 



60 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

cences solely as an eulogy upon the life and acts of 
Gen. Grant, but rather to j>;ck from the inan}^ inci- 
dents that are recalled from personal association 
with him, that will bring the reader closer to the 
real Grant. 

One little reminiscence is recalled after the fall 
of Vicksburg, which reveals one side of the Gen- 
eral's character very clearly. I was walking with 
him one day where much of the ordnance supplies 
were stored, and, as usual the old commander was 
puffing slowly on a good cigar. 

Suddenly a sentry strode up, and in a rough, al- 
most brutal voice, exclaimed to Gen. Grant: 

''Trow dat d — n cigar away at once. Do you 
want to blow up the ordnance department?" 

Without the least show of resentment, and with 
a sort of grim smile upon his lips he tossed the fra- 
grantweed away, as we passed on he remarked to 
me, "That soldier was rigiit, but he had rather a 
brusk way about expressing liimself." 

That was (irant all over. The incident was never 
referred to again by him as far as I know of, but 
there was but one old commander, and he knew 
how to take commands and to obey them without 
argument, if they were right. Of course the sentry 
at Vicksburg did not know the man he cursed at 
was the Commanding General, and I am sure that 
Grant never enlightened him. 

There were two men in the service that Gen. 
Grant had a great fondness for. They were Adj.- 
Gen. John A. Rawlings and Asst. Agt..-Gen. Bow- 
ers. After the war I was in Washington and I 
called at Gen. Grant's headquarters, where I found 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 61 



him chatting with old members of his staff. As I 
was looking about I saw an unframed picture of a 
man whom I could not place. 

"Who is that a picture of, General?" I asked in 
a casual way. 

"That's Bowers/' the General replied as he turn- 
ed around and looked kind of sadly at the canvas. 
"You heard about Bowers, haven't you?" 
. I knew Bowers, but had to confess that I had not 
learned anything in particular about him, as I in- 
ferred from the General's attitude when he an- 
swered my question as to whom the picture repre- 
sented, there was something out of the ordinary 
connected with the reference. The General related 
the folloAving story in a way that told me it was 
most painful to him : 

"I was called to West Point to inspect the mili- 
tary school one day, and Bowers accompanied me. 
As we were Avaiting at the railroad station just 
across the Hudson from West Point for the train I 
placed my hand bag on a seat and strolled out with 
Bowers to the platform. Presently the train came 
rolling in, and just as I boarded it I discovered that 
I did not have my hand bag, which contained noth- 
ing in particular but some toilet articles, a collar 
or two, some handkerchiefs and such like small ar- 
ticles. I turned and asked Bowers if he had my 
bag. He replied negatively, but at once conceived 
that I had left it in the station. He was a young 
and active man, and he lightly leaped to the plat- 
form with the intention of securing the satchel, and 
I walked into the car, taking a seat just behind a 



62 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



lady. I tlioiight notliini'- farther about the satchel 
incident until the lady who sat in front of me 
screamed in horror. 

" 'What is it, madame?' I asked. 

"'Oh I they haye run oyer a soldier,' she ex- 
claimed in <;reat excitement. 

"I turned to look for Bowers. He was not in 
sight. I went to the platform and there" — (the 
General's yoice grew tremulous here) — "Colonel, 
that soldi(^r, crushed to death, Avas Bowers." 

He could say no more then. A tear glistened for 
a moment in his e^'e and then rolled down his 
face — a silent sob right up from his kindly heart. 

I can say that there was cry in Col. Dick's eyes 
then, but I pulled myself together and remarked : 

"What a pity, General, that Bowers could not 
haye met a soldier's glorious death at Missionary 
Ridge." 

"Ah, yes I" replied the General, with emotion, "or 
fallen 'mid the shot and shell of Vicksburg." 

This incident reyeals the tender and sentimental 
side of the great soldier, and true friend. 

I do not belieye that General (xraut eyer felt the 
sensation of physical fear and in the face of great 
peril, bearing the heayy responsibility of a com- 
mander of a yast army in action, the result of which 
was fraught with so much to the national life, he 
was the calmest and most collected of all the actors 
in the tragedy of battle. When a battle was in- 
eyitable, and the plans of the engagement being per- 
fected, the members of Grant's staff, naturally anx- 
ious as to the outcome, (;fteu <lis]»]ayed tlieir nery- 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 63 



ousness. Ou sneli occasions Gen. Grant would 
demonstrate again his nerve and coolness. 

''Gentlemen/' lie would say to his staff, "Now re- 
member that the other fellows are just as much 
scared as you are, and act accordingly." While all 
was flurry and scurry, the General's pencil Avas in 
his hand maping out the line of battle, as clear and 
sharp as steel rails on a curveless railroad track. 

Gen. Grant never forgot or forsook a friend in 
the da^'S when he was at the pinnacle of fortune. 
One day I met Al. Sandford, of St. Louis in Wash- 
ington, when U. S. Grant Avas President. Sandford 
and the President liad been warm personal friends 
before the A^ar, A\iien the former was plain Capt- 
Grant. Sandford wanted to call on the President 
the worst kind, and asked what he should do and 
say when he met his old friend surrounded by pomp 
and power of state. 

"O, just go in naturally, Al," I advised Sandford. 
*'Say, 'Mr. President, allow your old friend, Al. 
Sandford, to congratulate you and to assure you 
of his great gratification and joy to find you where 
you are justl}^ entitled to be. President of this great 
and glorious republic' " 

"Oh, shucks, Colonel Dick," said Al. "How do 
you expect me to make that kind of a spiel to 
'Lys,' " as he used to call him away back when both 
he and Grant, then a captain, Avere courting Miss 
Julia Dent, whom you all know the man of destiny 
won and carried away a wife to his little cabin home 
on Gravois creek. However, Sandford got to the 
executive mansion, sent in his card, and when the 



64 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



President received it from the messenger, and 
glanced at it he sprang up hurriedly and rushed out 
to meet Sandford, with the cheery greeting of old : 

"Come right in, Al, you don't know how glad I 
am to see you. Have you called on Julia yet?" 

"No, Lys, not yet. How is Julia, God bless her?" 
blurted out Sandford impulsively, all my set 
speech being stricken with paralysis before it ever 
touched his tongue. 

"Julia is in excellent health, as are the rest of 
the family, replied President Grant as he pushed 
Al into a seat and sat down beside him. For a 
long time one was Al and the other 'Lys, as old 
times were discussed in the old time style. This 
incident is about as truly Grant like as any I have 
ever heard of him. 

Shortly after Gen. Grant's return from his trip 
around the world, he came to St. Louis and stopped 
a couple of days at the Southern Hotel. I stepped 
over to the hostelry where I met an old ex-Confed- 
erate Colonel from Atchison county, whom I knew 
to be a personal friend of my brother, Charles P. 
Johnson. The stalwart ex-Confederate veteran 
came to me with the request that I present him to 
Gen. Grant, who had just come into the rotunda. 

"I've always wanted to meet Gen. Grant person- 
ally, ever since the surrender of Gen. Lee," declared 
the man from Atchison county. 

I introduced the Colonel to Gen. Grant. He 
grasped the conqueror of Lee by the hand and shook 
it most cordially, bursting out with this stalwart 
declaration : 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 65 



"Gen. Grant, I have always wanted to meet you, 
and to thank you for your kind and soldiery treat- 
ment of our gallant leader of the lost cause. Gen. 
R. E. Lee, and his faithful followers, when our col- 
ors went down in the dust that fateful day at Ap- 
pomatox. I want to assure you that all of our boys 
retain the same sentiments that I do, for I was one 
of Lee's colonels in that memorable campaign of the 
Army of Virginia, that you so magnanimously al- 
lowed to retain its side arms, its wagons, provisions 
and its horses. General, the outfit was greatly de- 
moralized, and our stock was badly run down, but 
we took what we had and went to our homes, and I 
can tell you that we plowed like h — 1." 

"Colonel!" replied Gen. Grant, with some emo- 
tion. "It is one of the greatest pleasures of my 
maturing years to meet the old boys like you, and 
shake their hands. It makes me feel that we really 
have peace." 

Gen. Fred Grant, the old commander's son, who 
so much resembles his father, was in St. Louis last 
27th of April and a guest of the Illinois Society at 
its banquet given on "the late Gen. Grant's birthday 
in honor of the grand old soldier. I was supposed 
to look after the needs if any, of Gen. Fred Grant, 
while he remained in the city. It was a perfunctory 
assignment, as the General didn't seem to have any 
particular needs that our society could fill, but I 
did my duty heroically. 

On the night of our banquet, I suggested to Gen. 
Fred that he Avould be expected to give some kind 
of a talk, and he tried hard to get out of it for the 



66 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



reasou, he declared, that he was in no sense a public 
or post prandial speaker. He faced the music 
bravely for about five minutes and really made the 
hit of the evening. In a hesitating sort of a way^ 
he started oft" in this style : 

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Illinois Society, 
I — I — am happy ; yes, greatly pleased to be here to- 
night and I sincerely thank you that your society 
honors m^' father's birthday l>y this gathering to- 
night. I told Colonel Dick Johnson at the outset 
that I could not make a speech, but he honored me 
by telling me that I looked so much like my father 
that I ought to be able to make as good a speech 
as he used to. 

"I will relate an incident that occurred at a so- 
cial gathering in Brooklyn, N. Y., which I attended 
and was called upon to make a speech. I went at 
it and was making as painful an effort in set terms 
as I am making to-night. There was an old friend 
of my father's present, like Colonel Johnson, who 
had been telling me that I reminded him so much 
of my father, and if there is anything that I am 
proud of in the world it is to be reminded that I 
resend)le him in any Avay. I admit that the Brooklyn 
speech was a little worse than the one I am letting 
loose right now, but at its wind up something that 
saved the day occurred. Just as I sat down that 
old fi-iend of my father's got up and exclaimed, 'By 
gosh, if you ain't just like your father. Neither of 
3^ou could make a speech.' " 

Oen. Fred sat down amidst peals of laughter, 
a living picture of the grand old commander in 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 67 



whose memory we were breaking the bread of good 
fellowship across the board and honoring his dis- 
tingiiislied son. 



CONGRATULATIONS FOR GARFIELD. 



At the time of tlie eventfnl convention at Chica- 
go which made memorable the famous 306 delegates 
that stuck to General (irant through every varying 
phase of the contest for the nomination for the 
Presidency, under the masterly leadership of Ros- 
coe Conkling, I was so deeply interested in the final 
result that 1 could scarcely leave the bulletining 
places long enough to get my meals. The day be- 
fore the convention chose James A. Garfield as the 
standard bearer of the Republican party I met 
Colonel Easton, one of General Grant's warmest 
personal and political friends, who was, like my- 
self, deeply absorljed in the stirring and nerve- 
testing ordeal through which the admirers of the 
General were undergoing as each ballot was pro- 
gressing, and he said to me: 

"Colonel Dick, I am going over to Galena and 
see how Grant is feeling, and be with him when the 
final result is announced. Come along yourself. 
You can get in your congratulations at short range 
like myself. This waiting and watching down here 
is getting tryingly monotonous." 

Col. Easton's suggestion struck me as the proper 
thing for the occasion, but I could not follow them 
myself, but Colonel Easton made arrangements 
for departure, and the next morning he was with 



68 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



the General looking- over the balloting with as 
much eagnerness as he had displayed in St. Louis, 
but the man, whose name for the third time was 
before a National Republican Convention as a can- 
didate for the highest office the people of these 
United States had to offer, seemed the least moved 
of all the group of deeply interested persons about 
him. 

The man of peace and destiny received the ballots 
as they were brought into the store where, Colonel 
Easton told me, some friends had gathered about 
him, as cool and complacently as if he might have 
been scanning a ticker tape just to pass the time. 

"The same calmness was seen in his features that 
had so often before been noticed under momentous 
circumstances," related Gen. Easton on his return. 

There was not the least show of emotion except 
when I remarked at the conclusion of one of the 
ballots: 

"General, those 306 delegates are what I call 
thoroughbreds." 

"Yes," quietl.y, but with more tenderness in his 
voice, replied Grant, "It is very gratifying to feel 
the pulse of one's friends, and find they never falter 
under conditions which test both men's hearts and 
pulse." 

"When the convention broke for Garfield the old 
soldier displayed the natural interest of the citizen, 
but not a shadow of disappointment was visible. 

"When the man from the tow-path had the line 
and his nomination was a foregone conclusion, 
Grant asked for a piece of paper, remarking with 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 69 



perfect frankness and sincerity: 

'"I wish to send my congratulations to General 
Garfield/ but some one broke in right at this point 
by suggesting a name for the tail of the ticket. 

"Grant dropped the paper on the counter, with 
the pencil still in his hand, saying in reply to the 
gentlemen who had spoken of the Vice-Presidency : 

" 'I should very much like to have an opportunity 
to congratulate General Arthur. I trust his name 
may be put upon the ticket with General Garfield." 

"Then there was some talking about the matter 
for some moments, Grant in the mean time having 
been drawn away from the place where he left the 
sheet of paper and the matter was forgotten amidst 
the general talk. That is v/hy the Old Command- 
er's congratulations never were sent to the succss- 
ful candidate before the convention. Whether Gen- 
eral Grant ever sent congratulations to Arthur or 
not I do not know, and at the time didn't care 
much, as I was so disappointed at the thought that 
those tree hundred and six faithful followers of the 
Galena tanner could not be swelled to the nominat- 
ing point. 

"I came back to St. Louis feeling a great deal 
worse than General Grant did over his defeat." 



JUST LIKE GRANT. 
When I sought appointment as Consul to China, 
it was Shanghai that I was aiming at, but the condi- 
tion of affairs at the time I applied after Grant's 
election landed me in Hankow. I had strong en- 
dorsement for the U. S. Marshalship in this dis- 



70 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



trict, to fill out an unexpired term of office. That 
was before General Grant's election, and while An- 
drew Johnson was President, owing to the assassin- 
ation of Abraham Lincoln. The President said he 
would send in my name to the Senate if I could get 
the endorsement of the Senators from Missouri. 
When T approached Senator Drake he declared he 
had no objections to my appointment on personal 
grounds, but he would not approve any person for 
any position whose name was sent in by President 
Andrew Johnson, whom Drake disliked owing to 
his attitude in affairs that led up to his impeach- 
ment. Under those conditions I withdrew my ap- 
plication for IJ. S. Marshal, presenting it to Gen- 
eral Grant soon after his inauguration as Presi- 
dent. 

The President thought at the time, owing to dif- 
ferent Federal positions having just been filled 
by citizens of St. Louis that the Marshalship sb<>uld 
go to the State, but promised me that if I should 
look up something else he Avould appoint me. 

I then drew up a petition for the Shanghai Con- 
sulship a.nd went to tlie President with it. As 
Shanghai had already been promised the President 
suggested Hankow. 

I did not change the petition but left it just as it 
was. 

"Never mind changing the name of the Chinese 
port in your petition, Mr. Johnson. Just leave it 
with me and I'll attend to it all right," said Presi- 
dent Grant in his cordial frankness. 

I handed him the Shanghai petition, and while 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 71 



we talked for a feAv inomeuts until the arrival of 
Chief Justice Chase, Ceneral Logau and other dig- 
nitaries, when I thought it time for Col. Dick to 
make exit. As I was starting to depart the Presi- 
dent looked up pleaantly as he threw down the pe- 
tition on a pile of i^apers that would till a bushel 
basket. 

I picked it up and kissed it good-bye, and he 
smilingly asked : ^'What did you do that for?" 

"I am afraid that I will never hear from that 
document again, Mr. President," I replied. "It 
looks like a goner amidst that vast array of formid- 
able looking documents. Are those all petitions 
for the Hankow Consulship?" I asked dubiously. 

The President laughingly said in reply to my 
question, and with an assuring voice: "Not all of 
them are for China, but I'll attend to yours prompt- 
ly," and God bless him, he did. 

"I started for St. Louis at once and when I was 
leaving the ferry boat on my arrival here, to my 
joy and grantification I heard a newsboy crying 
out: 

" 'Evening Dispatch; all about the appointment 
of Dick Johnson as Consul to China.' " 

Now you can imagine my feelings at that mo- 
ment. But that act of General Grant proved the 
depth and sincerity of his friendship, and the sim- 
plicity and truthfulnes of the man, as nearly every 
act of his had done previously. 

MARINIADUKE MET GRANT. 



When General Grant was Commander-in-Chief of 



72 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



the Army, after the war he was called to New York 
on some matter of business and registered at the 
Fifth Avenue Hotel, where at the same time Gen- 
eral John S. Marmaduke, later Governor of Mis- 
souri, was sojourning for a brief time. While 
Grant was writing his name on the register, Mar- 
maduke, as some one who knew the little man was 
at the hotel desk, mentioned the fact and on be- 
ing informed who the distinguished guest was, he 
walked over at once to where General Grant was 
standing and at once accosted him : 

"This" General Grant?" 

"Yes," answered the famous soldier. 

"My name is Marmaduke, General, and I have a 
great desire to meet you," was General Marma- 
duke's greeting as the two Generals' hands clasped. 

"General Marmaduke of Missouri?" asked Grant 
in an interested and extremely cordial manner. 

"Yes, sir, General," replied the old fighter from 
the Confederate side. 

"General, I am really glad to meet you, and if 
you will excuse me a few moments until I retire to 
my room and make change in my toilet, as I just ar- 
rived by train from Washington, and I feel a little 
soiled, I should like to sit and chat for awhile, if 
agreeable to yourself." 

Of course it was agreeable to General Marma- 
duke, and after a few moments the Commander of 
the American Army returned, and the two veterans 
retired to a private parlor, where over their cigars 
they talked for over an hour. 

General Grant's quiet, unassuming manner and 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 73 



frankness of speech captured the warrior that wore 
the grey completely, and when he returned to St. 
Louis I met him at the old Planters' one day, when 
he began to sound the praise of General Grant in 
the most enthusiastic maner and in no measured 
terms. 

'^Don't you know. Colonel Dick, that I think 
General Grant is the greatest man in the country," 
exclaimed General Marmaduke, very earnestly. 
"He is not only a great soldier, but lie has the great- 
est and grandest heart that ever beat in a human 
bosom. He is by a damn sight the biggest little 
man that ever was," and the gallant old General 
meant just what he said, you may be assured. 



^ZX_. 




74 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

General FREDERICK DEM GR\NT AT THE LOG CABIN BlILT BY 
HIS FATHER. 

The Son of the Great Soldier-President Was Moved Almost to 
Tears Upon Revisiting the Home of His Humble Boy- 
hood, Now on the World's Fair Grounds. 



A^'lien Bridadier-General Frederictv D. Grant was 
iu St. Louis during and after the recent World's 
Fair dedication ceremonies a notable photograph 
A\'as taken by Official Photographer Byrnes of the 
Expostiou. It is a photograph that will belong to 
history and to romance — to the romantic history of 
the greatest American military commander and the 
most famous citizen who ever lived in St. Louis, 
Ul^^sses S. Grant. 

The photograph represents the present Gen. 
Grant, eldest son of the hero of Appomattox and of 
a hundred hard-fought fields of victory, sitting on 
horseback in front of a log cabin — but what log 
cabin? It is the log house built nearly fifty years 
ago by the liands that refused to receive the prof- 
fered sword of Le(^ at Appomattox; the house that 
Grant built, the rude structure wherein for four 
years he resided Avith his family in St. Louis 
County, struggling manfully but not very success- 
fully to make a good living for liis wife and babes. 

Frederick Dent Grant Avas one of those babes. 
The present brigadier-general in the United States 
army was born in the city of St. Louis, in 1850, and 
from his fifth to his ninth year he lived in that old 
cal)in, then newly-hewn out of the oak of the forest; 



OF GEN. U. G. GRANT. 75 



with his baby brothers he played about its doorstep, 
and sometimes he accompanied his father, Capt. 
Grant, retired, to the woods along the Gravois road, 
where the head of the family swung his ax all day 
long, chopping trees into the cordwood that he 
loaded upon his wagon and hauled into St. Louis, 
nine miles away, to sell to the city people. There 
were times when Capt. Grant, though wearied from 
his day's work, picked up the little fellow and car- 
ried him home upon his broad shoulders, to meet 
the good wife standing in that cabin doorway and 
to go in and eat tlie savory supper she had pre- 
pared. 

The visit of Brigadier-General Grant to the log 
house was arranged by Mr. C. F. Blanke, present 
owner of the cabin. Recently Mr. Blanke has had 
the house removed to the World's Fair grounds, 
where it was set up again, in proper place, just as it 
appeared when Capt. "Lys" Grant lived there a few 
years before the civil war. The site of the cabin is 
upon the rearward summit of Art Hill, not far 
from the growing Palace of Fine Arts. It is em- 
bowered in trees, and from the windows of the 
house one may look forth upon the great picture of 
the Fair, 

"In this spot," said Mr. Blanke to Gen. Grant, 
"I propose that the log house shall stand until it 
iJhall have rotted down — and may that day be many 
generations hence." 

In the photograph Gen. Grant appears mounted 
upon Village Boy, Mr. Blanke's well-known horse. 
The other men in the picture are Mr. Blanke and 



76 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



Lieut. Morej, Gen. Grant's aide. 

While visiting the cabin Gen. Grant, who is 
bronzed by campaigns in the Philippines, and 
whose hair already is tinged with gray, was much 
moved. He entered the cabin and pointed out the 
room upstairs, to the right of the entrance, where 
he slept with his little brothers. He told of long 
winter evenings spent by the big fire-place in one 
of the rooms downstairs, when Capt. Grant and his 
wife and children sat in a semi-circle facing the 
glowing back-log and talked of their prospects in 
life. 

Capt. Grant sometimes talked of his campaign 
in Mexico, telling his little boys of his soldiering 
experiences, and the children listened with avid 
interest. The father also told them of his lonely 
life on the Pacific coast, where he was stationed at 
an army post far removed from his wife and little 
Fred, and how homesick he became — so homesick 
that he resigned his commission just after being 
promoted to a captaincy and came back to St. Louis 
to make a home for his family. 

"And those were happy days in the log house," 
said Mrs Julia Dent Grant, shortly before she died 
last year, "and the eight years in the White House 
were happy, too." — From the Post-Dispatch. 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 



77 




CYRUS F. BLANKE. Born in 
Marine, 111., Oct. 24, 1861. Son 
of Frederick G. and Caroline 
Blanke. Cyrus F. Blanke re- 
ceived his early school educa- 
tion in Marine and his primary 
business education in his fa- 
ther's store. He later came to 
St. Louis and enlered a business 
college. 

He is typical of the American 
self-made man. At the age of 
sixteen he accepted a clerkship in a retail grocery and soon 
after was offered and accepted several positions with different 
wholesale houses, the last one being a Tea and Coffee Con- 
cern. His position in the House was soon advanced to that 
of a traveling salesman, which he retained until he concluded 
to go into business for himself. But in 1888, before embark- 
ing in business, he decided to make a trip over Europe, with 
a view to gathering any importants points from the different 
countries that he intended to visit that might be of advan- 
tage to him in his new enterprise. 

In 1889, in a modest building on Second Street, he started 
with his brother, R. H. Blanke, and H. A. Vogler as asso- 
ciates, the Tea and Coffee firm which to-day is recognized as 
the most complete coffee plant in the world. 

Mr. Blanke was married in 1889 to Miss Eugenia Frowein. 
He is a member of most of the prominent clubs, has always 
been an active worker in all public enterprises for the wel- 
fare and advancement of the city, and was a delegate to the 
first meeting to discuss the promotion of one of the grandest 
enterprises this country has ever seen, the Exposition cele- 
brating the Louisiana Purchase, and was the second to sub- 
scribe to the preliminary fund to carry the plan through. 



78 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



He is a Director of the Fair and a member of several commit- 
tees. He is also an officer and director in several banks and 
trust companies, and enjoys the distinction of having been 
the youngest president ever elected by the Union Club. Mr. 
Blanke's last public-spirited act was the purchase of the Log 
Cabin built by General U. S. Grant in 1854, in order to pre- 
serve it from destruction and it is his intention to present it 
to the city after the World's Fair is over, providing the city 
will agree to properly care for and preserve it as a historic 
relic of one of America's greate.-t men. 



In my travel through different foreign countries, 
I was always pointed out the houses in which dif- 
ferent celebrities were born and where they lived. 
In all cases, these houses were preserved and taken 
care of for the tourists who inspected them with 
reverence and great interest. Amongst these tour- 
ists I noticed that the Americans were always the 
most interested and enthusiastic. Naturally the 
thought always occurred to me, why is there not 
some movement in our own country to preserve 
such relics? I knew there was a house in the city 
of St. Louis in which General Grant at one time 
lived and a log cabin which he built himself and re- 
sided in, still both were neglected by the commu- 
nity and the people at large. 

But these same people visiting foreign countries, 
and finding just such relics, the most interesting 
objects, houses of celebrities, not one as much en- 
titled to recognition or worship as are the relics of 
that great American soldier and statesman, Gen- 
eral U. S. Grant. When the last owner of the 
Grant cabin came to me and offered it for sale, I 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 79 



was at once interested, as the impression of these 
same kind of relics made on me when visiting for- 
eign countries were still fresh in my memory and 
I have always felt that if I ever had the time and 
money I would get a movement on foot and arouse 
an interest in at least one relic so far neglected in 
this country and this relic I thought was entitled 
to reverence, respect and admiration over any relic 
ever connected with any great man. Here is a 
cabin that was built by a man in his darkest days 
of poverty and adversity ,and in which he himself 
resided with his family, and only a matter of ten 
years afterwards, the greatest man in not only his 
own country, but the greatest man of his time with 
the eyes of the world upon him. It is an object les- 
son to every growing generation of this country, 
especially to the boys, the price of which cannot 
be valued in dollars and cents. This is why I 
bought General Grant's cabin. 




RESOLUTIOM of THANKS 
to 
CYRUS P. BLANKS. 

RESOLVED! That the hearty thahks of this Board are due and 
are hereby tendered to Mr. Cyrus P. Blanke for his genepous cour- 
tesy in allowing two logs to be cut from the Grant Cabin for thjB 
purpose of framing the resolutioris of acknowledgment to Andrew 
Carnegie for his gift to St, Louis. 

I take pleasure in certifying that the above is a true and 
correct transcript of a resolution adopted by the Board of 
Directors of the St. Louis Public Library at a meeting held at the 
Library on Priday, April 1, 1004. 
Atl 



^^U^eycd?]. 




Librarian and Secretary, 



80 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 




JUDGE CHESTER H. KRUM. 
Born September 13, 1840, in 
Alton, 111. Son of Judge John 
M. and Mary (Harding) 
Krum. He received his early 
education in the Washington 
University, graduating in the 
class of 18fi^ with the degree 
of Bachelor of Arts. He took 
the law course at Harvard, 
graduating in 1865. Having 
been admitted to the bar in 
1864, he at once began the 
practice of law in St. Louis, 
becoming, in 1867, junior member of the firm of Krum, 
Decker & Krum. 

He was appointed United States District Attorney in 1869 
by General Grant. He served in this capacity until 1872, 
when he resigned and was elected a Judge of the St. Louis 
Circuit Court, holding this office until 1875, when he resigned 
to resume the practice of his profession, since which time he 
has been identified with many of the most important cases 
in the State and Federal Courts. 

He was a member of the Faculty of the St. Louis Law 
Schools from 1873 to 1882. F'rom 1864 until 1888 he took an 
active part in politics as a Republican, but in the year last 
named he supported the candidates on the Democratic ticket. 



In the fall of 1876, shortly after the Presidential 
election, I was in the "President's room" in the 
White House. Gen. Grant (President) and I had 
been talking about various matters. There had 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 81 



been considerable excitement in regard to the re- 
sult of the election and Col. Watterson had pro- 
claimed in his paper that he was coming to Wash- 
ington with 100,000 Kentuekians. The President, as 
we sat looking out on the public grounds, asked me 
if I had read the proclamation. I told him I had 
read it and, thereupon, he made the following re- 
markable statement. He said that it was not for 
him to decide as between Tilden and Hayes. That 
it was not a matter of official concern to him which 
had been elected. "But," said he, "if Mr. Tilden is 
declared to have been elected, if I have anything to 
do in the matter, he will be placed in office with- 
out a disturbance and the case will be the same 
as to Mr. Hayes. Now, Chester," said he, "I did 
not know what possible trouble there might be and 
so I have had every battery of artillery that could 
be brought here quietly packed in Washington, and 
if Watterson comes, I will blow away his Kentuek- 
ians and himself." The firm mouth of the Presi- 
dent as the sentence ended gave all the assurance 
needed that if the exigency arose, he would be as 
good as his word. 



^-v. 




82 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 




■^.X' 



DR. WM. TAUSSIG. Born 
Feb. 28, 1826 in the city of 
Prague, educated in the Uni- 
versity of Prague. He came 
to America in 1847 and re- 
mained one year in New 
Yorlc City as analytical 
chemist. 

In 1848 he reached St. 
Louis and commenced the 
practice of medicine. Dr. 
Taussig, on account of his 
experience, was of especial 
service to the city during 
the cholera epidemic in 1849. 

' In 1851 he removed to Carondelet, then an independent 
city and not a part of St. Louis. He took an active part in 
municipal affairs and was elected Mayor in 1852. In 1857 
he married Miss Adele Wuerpel of St. Louis. 

In 1859 he became one of the Judges of the St. Louis 
County Court, his associates being John H. Lightner, Benj. 
Farrar, Colonel Alton R. Easton and Peregrine Tibbets. In 
1863 Dr. Taussig was re-elected to the County Court, and 
was chosen as presiding Justice. While acting in this capac- 
ity he passed en an application made by U. S. Grant for the 
position as County Surveyor, the particulars of which will 
be found in Dr. Taussig's article. 

In 1865 he was appointed United State Internal Revenue 
Collector by President Lincoln. At the close of the war he 
became interested in Banking Institutions, and was elected 
first President of the Traders' Bank. He later became inter- 
ested, with Captain Jas. B. Eads, in the project to construct 
8. bridge across the Mississippi River. 

He has been identified with a number of railroad projects. 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 83 



and has always carried them through successfully. In 1874, 
when the bridge was completed, he was appointed general 
manager of the St. Louis Bridge Co., Tunnel Railroad Co., 
Union Railroad and Transit Co. and the Union Depot Co. 

All of the above, later combined under the name of the 
Terminal Railway Association of St. Louis, which corpora- 
tion elected Dr. Taussig its President in ld89. 

Soon after this Dr. Taussig retired from any active partici- 
pation in public affairs, with the e.xception of his consent 
to become one of the original Committee of Forty that con- 
ceived and promoted the plan to celebrate the Louisiana 
Purchase Exposition, on which occasion he was elected 
Chairman of the Transportation Committee, but resigned, 
preferring to take a less active part, although lending his 
influence and financial support to the enterprise. 



ADDRESS BEFORE THE MISSOURI HISTOR- 
ICAL SOCIETY. 
By Dr. Willl\m Taussig. 
Mr. President and (Tentlemcn of the Missoiwl Hi^i- 
toricttl Society: 

In compliance with the request which the presi- 
dent of our society has honored me, I <z;ather up, 
from memory mainly, the few instances of my life 
whicli hrouiiht me in contact, directly and indirect- 
ly, with General Grant. Insip;nificant as they may 
seem, tliey throw a sidelight, nevertheless, upon his 
early struggles, upon the environments among 
which he lived, and upon the patient, plodding 
character of the num. 

Our daily lives are made up of small events. 
When our life work is done, and a restrospective 
view of it is taken, then small events sometimes 
show themselves to have been important factors in 
its make-up and its final trend. This holds good 



84 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



with great men as well as with the average man, 
and historians everywhere have picked up appar- 
ently insignificant details in the early lives of their 
subjects to show the formative influence which 
these details had upon their future greatness. 
Some of these small events relating to General 
Grant which I have been privileged to witness, and 
which in retrospect seem to me now to have more 
historical significance than when they actually oc- 
curred, I will hesitatingly relate to you, with some 
of the local color which belongs to them. 

I lived in Carondelet, a small city a few miles 
below St. Louis, from 1850 to 18G3. It was then 
a municipality of old-French Canadian origin, but 
has long since been absorbed into the city of St. 
Louis and forms now one of its most populous dis- 
tricts. 

In 1852 I became Mayor of the city of Caronde- 
let. One of my first official acts was to direct the 
hitherto neglected defense, in the U. S. Land Com- 
missioner's office in Washington, against the claim 
of Col. F. Dent, for the possession, under an old 
Spanish grant, of a large portion of the Carondelet 
commons which had been set aside by the old vil- 
lage trustees for school purposes. Mr. Barrett, an 
able lawyer and ex-member of Congress from St. 
Louis, and the late Judge Wilson Primm, were 
selected to represent the Carondelet side of the 
case. The claim was finally decided, two years af- 
ter my administration, against Dent. He had tried 
very hard to get me to abandon the suit, and never 
forgave me for insisting upon it. He was a gentle- 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 85 



man of considerable energy, masterful in his ways, 
of persistent combativeness, of the grim, set pur- 
pose peculiar to the Southerners of the old genera- 
tion, and was, where foiled, inclined to be vindic- 
tive. He owned a large farm, called White Haven, 
well stocked with slaves, a few miles below Caron- 
delet. He was General Grant's father-in-law. 

Much gossip was prevalent at the time of which 
I speak, regarding troubles between the Dents and 
some of their neighbors which would have no place 
here except in so far as it throws a sidelight on the 
surroundings into which General Grant stepped 
upon his marriage, and in so far as it may have in- 
fluenced his desire of getting away from the de- 
pendency upon his father-in-law. 

Adjoining the Dent farm was the farm of 
"Colonels'' William and John Sigerson, both men 
of wealth and importance. Their's was uminly a 
nursery farm worked by white hands. They were 
Southerners, but pronounced Union men. There 
were continued feuds and quarrels between the 
Dents and the Sigersons. Though I was quite inti- 
mate with the latter, I never could find out what 
was at the bottom of this mutual hostility. One 
night all the haystacks and some outhouses of the 
Sigersons were burned down. Busy tongues at 
once connected this incident with the well-known 
bad feeling existing between the two neighbors, 
and spread the rumor that the stacks had been set 
on fir(^ by the Dents. This rumor, of course, had not 
the slightest foundation. The Dents, whatever their 
animosity might have been, were highly respecta- 



86 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



ble gentlefolks and above doing a mean thing. But 
the rumor must have reached them, and they at- 
tributed its origin to the Sigersons. One morn- 
ing young Fred Dent, son-in-law of Mr. Shurlds, 
then cashier of the old Bank of the State of Mis- 
souri, appeared in the streets of Carondelet with a 
shotgun Ininting for Sigerson. I became aware of 
it only when, that morning, William Sigerson 
rushed excitedly into my oflQce and asked whether 
I could let him have a gun or a pistol. "That fel- 
low Dent," he said, "is after me, and I want to be 
ready for him." Although I had a pistol, fearing 
trouble I said that 1 had neither, and before I could 
say a quieting word to him Sigerson rushed out 
again. I ran after him to the door, and, looking 
round, saw a crowd a square below, where the two, 
Sigerson and Dent, had clinched, — Dent down and 
Sigerson beating his head with a club. Soon after- 
wards Dent was carried to my office, where I found 
that his scalp was seriously injured by deep and 
wide cuts. After superficial dressing I took him in 
my buggy to his father-in-law's residence, which 
was situated on the Carondelet road, now South 
Broadway, near where the city workhouse is now 
standing. After hovering between life and death 
for some time he finally recovered. He afterwards 
went to California, where he obtained some emi- 
nence and later served, as I was informed, in ffie 
civil war as a Union soldier, with a fine record. I 
mention this incident with the others only as indi- 
cating the temper and characteristics of the family 
in the midst of which General Grant's lot was cast. 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 87 



Though we saw each other often and knew each 
other very well, as men in small communities do 
even when there is no occasion for personal con- 
tact, I never had occasion, beyond bowing to each 
other, to speak to General Grant until after he was 
President, upon matters which will be mentioned 
later. I saw him frequently haul many of the now 
historical carts of cord wood for sale in St. Louis 
from his father-in-law's farm, past my home and 
office. There was a blacksmith's shop opposite me, 
and I can see him now as he then appeared, sitting 
on a log in front of the shop, — a serious, dignified 
looking man, with slouched hat, high boots, and 
trousers tucked in, smoking a clay pipe and waiting 
for his horses to be shod. 

Nor did I ever set foot on the Dent farm, although 
all the neighbors around it — the Longs, the Sap- 
pingtons, the Paddel fords, etc. — were my close 
friends, whom I frequently visited. The old gen- 
tleman did not feel kindly toward me on account of 
the land suit above mentioned, and because I was a 
pronounced Republican and Union man. I always 
at that time had the impression that this feeling — 
meaning the political one — had been shared by 
Grant. In this, as future events have shown, I was 
mistaken. 

The only member of the Grant family, with whom 
I was intimate was William Barnard, whose wife 
was a sister of Mts. Grant. The Barnard residence 
was situated in a large plot of ground facing the 
Stringtown road, on what is now the corner of 
Merrimac street and Virginia avenue. It is still 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



standing, though now surrounded by inferior build- 
ings. Barnard was a wholesale druggist, an amia- 
ble, jovial man, very fond of hunting, and his yard 
and garden were filled with wooden and cast iron 
efiigies of stags, deer, and hunting dogs. He was 
too fond of good living to succeed in business, and 
failed early during the war. Grant, during his 
Presidency, made him Bank Examiner for Mis- 
souri, under the National Banking Law. 

At the Barnard home I met Mrs. Grant frequent- 
ly when she made some of her prolonged visits to 
her sister, and occasionally was called to attend to 
her children. Both Mrs. Grant and Mrs. Barnard 
were charming, cultivated ladies, devoted to their 
husbands and children. A family physician gets to 
hear much that is kept from the general public, 
and the, to say the least, dependent position which 
Grant occupied in the house of his father-in-law 
was frequently commented upon in my presence. 
That he chafed under this condition of things was 
evident from his desire to obtain a position that 
would make him more independent. His effoits 
in that direction made me an unconscious factor in 
his destiny, as he later on acknowledged, under the 
following circumstances : 

Early in 1859 a serious defalcation in the St. 
Louis County Court came to the surface. Its presi- 
dent. Judge Hackney, decamped to California with 
over 1300,000 of the county's money, leaving its 
treasury almost empty. Great corruption was 
found to exist, and the Legislature, then in session, 
was appealed to to apply a remedy. There having 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 89 



been no legal way to oust the members of that 
court, except by the slow process of impeachment, 
the Legislature adopted the radical method of abol- 
ishing the court altogether and creating in its 
stead a board of five County Comissioners, with 
the same powers and official functions which the 
old court possessed. The Legislature was Demo- 
cratic and pro-slavery, and the five districts, each 
of which had to elect one member, were, so laid out 
by it as to insure the comissioners so elected to be 
oi the same political faith. But the result was dif- 
ferent ; three districts out of five went Republican, 
and I was elected to represent one of the three. It 
was the first dawn of pronounced Union sentiment 
in Missouri. 

In the month of August of that year Grant filed 
his application addressed to the St. Louis County 
Commissioners, for the position of Superintendent 
of County Roads, a modest place with a yearly sal- 
ary of fifteen hundred dollars. This application has 
become historical ; its original, which still exists in 
the archives of the court, has frequently been pub- 
lished in fac simile. Nobody at that time dreamt 
that historj' would concern itself about it or the 
applicant. It was referred, as were all others, to 
the member in whose district the applicant resided, 
and it fell therefore to my lot to report upon it. It 
stands in evidence of Grant's dignified pride that, 
hard pressed as he was at the time, he never called 
either on me or on any one of my colleagues in sup- 
port of his application. Many strong letters from 
prominent people of both parties, recommending 



90 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



him, came to me. My old and life-long friend, 
Henry T. Blow, an ardent Union man, urged me 
personally to recomend and support Grant for the 
position. Much stress was laid on his needs, his 
character and qualifications not being questioned. 
It was a perplexing position for me. Everybody 
knows how portentously already the clouds of dis- 
union darkened the political horizon of the country 
in the latter part of 1859. Then, already, in St. 
Louis the disloyal "minute men" on the one side, 
and the loyal "wide awakes' 'on the other, wer^ 
closing ranks, and every issue, social or political, 
was decided or acted upon as it affected this all- 
absorbing question. The Dents, at least the old 
gentleman, were known to be pro-slavery Demo- 
crats, and lo use the harsh language of that period, 
outspoken rebels. Grant lived with them, and 
though nothing was known of his political views, 
the shadow of their disloyalty necessarily fell on 
him. AVe felt bound, foreseeing events to come, to 
surround ourselves with officers whose loyalty to 
the Union was unquestioned. Our court consisted 
of John H. Lightner, Benjamin Farrar, Col. Alton 
R. Easton, Peregrine Tibbets, and myself. Easton 
and Tibbets were Democrats. Col. Easton was a 
Union Democrat, an ex-officer of the Mexican war, 
and had known Grant. Tibbets, a most estimable 
gentleman, was a pro-slavery Democrat. I made 
my report, adverse to Grant, verbally, and all but 
Tibbets voted for F. Solomon, brother of the re- 
nowned war Governor of Wisconsin, an excellent 
civil engineer, who later served in the civil war as 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 91 



Colonel of Artillery, and died of wounds received 
in battle. In his Memoirs, p. 212, General Grant 
alludes to this episode in his life, and concludes 
with the following: words: "My opponent had the 
advantage of birth over me (he was a citizen by 
adoption) and carried off the prize." In this he 
evidently makes it appear as though Solomon was 
chosen because he was a German. As I was the 
only German-born member of the board, and the 
other four Avere Americans, he evidently wrote this 
under misapprehension. How anxious Grant was 
to obtain that position appears from the following 
letter written six months later: 

St. Louis, Feb. 13, 18G0. 
"Hon. J. H. Lightner, Pres. Board of County Com- 
missioners. 

"Sir: — Should the office of County Engineer be 
vacated by the will of your honorable body, I would 
respectfully renew the application made by me in 
August last for that appointment. I would also, 
by leave, refer to the application and recommenda- 
tions then submitted and now on file with your 
board. I am, sir, 

"Respectfully your obt. Svt, 

"U. S. Grant.'' 

( The original of this letter is in possession of the 
Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis.) 

After this occurrence Grant left the farm, moved 
to St. Louis, where he entered, without succeeding, 
into the real estate business, and then completely 
dropped out of sight and memory of the St. Louis 
people. Not until he had gained his first laurels at 



92 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



Belmont, Missouri, did the name strike his former 
neighbors, and people asked each other whether 
this could be the same Grant, Dent's son-in-law — 
the same slow, seemingly indolent and apathetic 
man, whom they had seen drive a team of cord wood 
from his father-in-law's woods, and whom they had 
never believed to be much of a man. 

Events marched rapidly. The victory at Fort 
Donelson turne<l the eyes of the whole country 
toward Grant and gained him the Major-General- 
ship. Soon after this he visited St. Louis, and 
among others, called on his friend, Henry T. Blow, 
then member of Congress. Mr. Blow on the fol- 
loAving day brought me substantially the following 
message from him: "I wish you would tell Dr. 
Taussig that I feel much indebted to him for having 
voted against me when I applied for the position of 
Road Superintendent. Had he supported me I 
might be in that obscure position to-day, instead of 
being Major-General." 

There can be little doubt that these remarks re- 
flected his own honest opinion of himself. Natur- 
ally his military genius, as it gradually developed, 
gave rise to many discussions among the St. Louis 
people who had known him in the dark day prior to 
the war. They asked each other whether any of 
them ever had an idea as to the powers that were 
hidden under the surface of this silent, phleg- 
matic man. The great military genius, the dominat- 
ing firmness of character, the fine personal quali- 
ties, and even the literary ability as shown in his 
dispatches and in his memoirs, were all there, but 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 93 



dormant, only awaiting a stimulus to waken them 
into activity — a spark to fire them up to warmth 
and life. The civil war proved to me that spark; 
without it the genius in him might have slumbered 
on without awakening, and what was hidden in 
him might never have come to the surface. Had 
he been in the possession of a snug little office, with 
sufficieint income to live comfortably with his wife 
and children, independent of his father-in-law, it is 
at least a debatable question whether, at the out- 
break of the war, he would have shaken off his 
easy-going indolence and volunteered into the ser- 
vice. When he did so it was onl}' after he had made 
a failure of the tanning business in Galena and 
after his father and brother could do nothing fur- 
ther for him. So his own admission that "had he 
been in office as Road Superintendent he might still 
be so," was at that time shared by all who knew 
him, and is still my honest belief. On a later oc- 
casion, to which I shall refer hereafter, he indirect- 
ly expressed this view to me. 

Unquestionably his dependent position at Dent's 
had soured him, perhaps led him to those habits of 
occasional intemperance ( which had received much 
wider notice than there was warrant for) and made 
him Avisli for any change. 

The following occurrence may tend to illustrate 
the temper of his father-in-law toward him after the 
fall of Fort Donelson. I was driving with John 
Fenton Long, who was then occupying the position 
of Road Superintendent that Grant had applied 
for, a near neighbor of Dent's and one of the most 



94 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



devoted friends of Grant, under whom he after- 
wards occupied several high offices, when, at a 
cross-road, we met Col. Dent, and stopping, en- 
gaged in conversation. Long mentioned the famous 
victory that Grant had accomplished at Fort Don- 
nelson, when Dent, interrupting him angrily, said: 
"Don't talk to be about this Federal son-in-law of 
mine. There shall always be a plate on my table 
for Julia, but none for him." From this remark 
I inferred at once that I had done Grant an injus- 
tice ; that he had always been a Union man and had 
incurred Dent's displeasure on that account. How 
little did this old man foresee the great honor that 
was in store for him by being permitted to sit at 
the presidential table of his son-in-law. 

Years passed, and in 1868, Grant became Presi- 
dent. He had been a warm friend and admirer of 
Capt. Jas. B. Eads, the famous engineer who de- 
signed and built the St. Louis bridge. Early in its 
inception, being also a warm friend of Capt. Eads, 
I became interested in the enterprise, and having 
been forced by ill-health to abandon my profession, 
joined the directory of the Bridge Company in 1867 
and became the general manager of that corpora- 
tion, with which I am still identified. In the early 
stages of the bridge enterprise, the steamboat men 
of St. Ix)uis opposed it, without avail, however, in 
the Legislature, in Congress, and in the Municipal 
Assembly. They opposed the erection of any bridge 
whatever, ostensibly because their high chimneys 
could not pass under bridges at high water, but 
really because they thought that railroad bridges 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 95 



would seriously affect the river trade. Foremost 
among the opponents were Capt. McCune and Capt. 
Sam. Gaty, of the St. Louis and Keokuk line of 
steamboats? As is well known, the Bridge Com- 
pany had to struggle against great physical and 
technical difficulties, consequent upon the novelty 
of the engineering features of that structure; but 
finally, in 1873, after its great piers were sunk and 
the ponderous arches erected, the owners of the 
Keokuk Packet Line filed a complaint with the 
Secretary of War, that the bridge was an obstruc- 
tion to comerce, because the smoke stacks of their 
boats could not pass under the bridge at high water 
without lowering, and they asked for the removal 
of the structure on this account. It became at once 
evident to us that this complaint was not filed with 
the former Secretary of War, Judge Taft, of Cin- 
cinnati, father of the present Governor of Manila, 
and before the structure was practically completed, 
because there was no chance of its then being seri- 
ously entertained, but that now General Belknap 
( of unsavory record ) , a Keokuk man, and a friend 
of McCune and Gaty, being Secretary, there was a 
chance for his town folk and intimate friends. It 
was intimated at the time that Belknap was inter- 
ested in that line, but it is not known whether 
such was the case. 

At all events the Secretary, immediately upon 
the filing of this petition, appointed a commission 
of army engineers, Col. Simpson presiding, to in- 
quire into this alleged obstruction. That commis- 
sion appeared, took ex parte testimony from steam- 



96 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



boat men only, refused the Bridge Company and its 
counsel, Gen. John W. Noble, any hearing and ar- 
bitrarily closed the proceedings before the Bridge 
Company could take breath. 

To the astonishment of the whole community the 
commission reported to the Secretary that although 
the bridge had been constructed in exact accordance 
with the act of Congress, it nevertheless was an 
obstruction to navigation and should be taken 
down, or that a ship canal should be built around 
it at its eastern end, and that the whole matter be 
reported to Congress for its action in the premises. 
A few days later after the rendering of this report 
we learned that it had been approved by the Sec- 
retary and ordered to be filed for reference to Con- 
gress. 

Everybody in St. Louis was astounded at that 
report. It was ridiculed by the press and the com- 
ment on the Secretary's action was very severe. 
To the Bridge Company, however, it was a matter 
of serious concern. Over six millions of money 
had already been expended, and financial negotia- 
tions for the means to complete the structure were 
then pending which would have failed if the exist- 
ence of the structure were in peril through a recom- 
mendation of the Secretary to Congress to have it 
removed. 

In this emergency Capt. Eads and I concluded to 
appeal to the President, and on a hot July morning 
of the same 3^ear, we appeared at the White House, 
sent in our cards, and were promptly admitted. 
Upon our entering his cabinet President Grant met 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 97 



Capt. Eads with outstretched hands, greeting him 
warmly, and then, turning toward me, said, with 
a facetious smile, while shaking hands with me: 
"How are you, Judge." I noticed the allusion at 
once and said : ^'^Mr. President, by addressing me as 
'Judge' I hope you do not recall a former event 
w^hich weighed heavily on my mind ever since you 
have attained your high position." He laughed 
and said : "Oh, no ; you see how much better it is 
than it might have been." 

We stated our case and he listened seriously and 
attentively. He had never heard of this commis- 
sion, — its appointment or action. After a while he 
rang the bell and sent for the Secretary. General 
Belknap soon entered, and the President at once, 
rapidly and curtly, asked him a few categorical 
questions, — had the bridge been built in accordance 
with the provisions of the aet of Congress, and had 
the structure been approved by the former Secre- 
tary of War? Belknap said yes, but claimed the 
general authority under the law given to the Secre- 
tary of War to remove obstructions to navigation, 
and offered to send for all the papers in the case. 

The President said nothing for a while, and then, 
with that peculiar firm set of his lower jaw, sub- 
stantially said : "I do not care to look at the pa- 
pers. You certainly cannot remove this structure 
on your own judgment. If Congress were to order 
its removal it would have to pay for it. I would 
hardly do that in order to save high smokestacks 
from being lowered when passing under the bridge. 
If vour Keokuk friends feel aggrieved let them 



98 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



sue the bridge people for damages. I think, Gen- 
eral, you had better drop the ease." 

Belknap, whose face had colored to a deep red, 
rose, and, with a bow, left the cabinet. We left 
soon, with warm thanks, and were enabled to in- 
form the public and our bankers that this vexatious 
proceeding had been entirely abandoned by order 
of the President. 

After this occurrence President Grant visited our 
bridge office and inspected the progress of the work 
every time he came to St. Louis. I remember par- 
ticularly one raw, cold November day in 1873, 
when he came to our office, accompanied by the late 
Capt. Cozzens and Mr. Chauncey I. Filley, and 
went out Avith Capt. Eads and Col. Hy. Flad, the 
assistant chief engineer, to walk over the first two 
arches, over which only a few narrow planks had 
been laid. It was hard and risky work, even for 
those accustomed to it, but as Col. Flad told me, the 
President walked over it fearlessly and took in ev- 
erything that was shown him with much interest. 
Upon the return of the party Capt. Eads took a bot- 
tle of brandy out of his closet, I brought out my 
box of cigars, and we all sat down around a 
draughtsman's deal table. The President and those 
with him were nearly frozen and he and they en- 
joyed the brandy. He smoked cigars rapidly and 
had them half chewed up when he threw them away. 
His conversation and demeanor were as quiet, mod- 
est and unassuming as those of any private citizen. 
While looking at him I bad always to recall to my 
mind and to realize that it was not an ordinary 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 



99 



citizen who sat and chatted at this table, but the 
greatest man of his time. 

History has already inscribed this great char- 
acter, and what the country owes to him, upon its 
tablets, but only a few have been privileged to know 
his plain and unassuming disposition, the ease with 
which he turned from the lofty eminence of the 
presidential chair into the position of a plain citi- 
zen, the loyalty with which he clung, often to his 
own discomfort and disparagement, to old friends 
and adherents, and withal the quiet, impressive 
dignity which distinguished this unpretending 
democratic citizen President. 




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oftpJ- to you BiiJ >(»ur usoriatrs on thi" ro*l.DiBpK!ch 
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of irhic 



Very rMpcctfnlly, 



100 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 




Htical ticket. 



DR. EMIL PRE- 
rORIUS, Editor-in- 
Chief and President of 
t Ii e Westliclie Post. 
Born March 15, 1827, 
in Alzey, Rheinhessen, Ger- 
many. He graduated in law 
at Giessen and Heidelberg. 
On account of political differ- 
ences he left Germany in 1849, 
and came directly to St. Louis. 

Having a natural taste for pol- 
itics, he in 1860 espoused the 
cause of Abraham Lincoln. In 
1862 was elected to the Missouri 
Legislature. Since then, while 
always active in every public 
movement, he has declined to 
let his name appear on any po- 



I met Captain Grant early in the fifties, at which 
time he was seeking- employment here in the engi- 
neering line; and later on I knew him as a member 
of the Grant Leather Firm at Galena, 111. In both 
capacities, however, he drew on himself the especial 
attention of neither myself nor of others. That 
condition changed, of course, with the outbreak of 
the war, when I first met him pei*sonally and most 
cordially at Gen. Fremont's headquarters on Chou- 
teau avenue. From there he proceeded forthwith 
with a commission of the Commanded-in-Chief to 
Paducah, where and afterwards at Belmont, he 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 



101 



won his first laurels at the head of his brigade. Dur- 
ing Johnson's term I came in closer contact with 
him, when the WestlicJie Post became actively en- 
gaged in bringing him out as a Presidential candi- 
date. My last couA^ersation with Gen. Grant oc- 
curred at the time we were both goiests of Mr. 
Henry Villard, on the celebrated western trip in 
September, 1883, on the occasion of the opening of 
the Northern Pacific R. R. While not claiming 
anything in the nature of an intimate acquaintance 
with the Old Commander and great leader, I hare 
known and seen enough of him, to concur fully and 
understandingly in the nation's appreciation of 
Ulysses S. Grant. 




', \_/^t.C/.1^«^T.^^<-l- 



10^ 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 




out St. Louis County 
''Trip." 



N. REAVIS. Born Nov. 21^ 
1835, in St. Louis County, 
where he has resided all his 
life, with the exception of 
two and one-half years serv- 
ice in Company H. Missouri 
Confederate Volunteers. Mr. 
Reavis had many exciting ex- 
periences while acting as a 
carrier of dispatches between 
Colonel Porter and General 
Price. He Is known through 
and the state by the nickname of 



One evening in the fall, directly after the Mexi- 
can war, two horsemen, riding westward on the 
Big Bend road in St. Louis county, drew near to 
the old homestead (in which I then lived) and sa- 
luted with a "Hello,'- which was answered by my 
older brother and myself. It was after dusk and 
the horsemen had lost their way. One of them 
asked my brother if he could direct them to Col. 
Dent's farm. My brother thought for a moment 
and replied, "I do not know any 'Colonel' around 
here, but old man Dent lives on the Gravois creek 
about two miles distant," and being set right the 
two horsemen passed on. They were U. S. (then 
Captain ) Grant and his future brother-in-law, Lew 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 103 



Dent. This began my acquaintance with the future 
President of the United States. Years passed be- 
fore I saw him again and it was not until after his 
marriage and lie had taken up his residence at the 
Dent homestead and we had become neighbors of 
fair proximity in those days that I had any rela- 
tions with him. 

It must have been in the winter of 1853 or 1854 
that Jonali Sappington and myself entered into an 
arrangement with Capt. Grant in regard to a quan- 
tity of cord wood. At the time of the settlement 
a disagreement arose as to the amount, for which 
payment was to be made, and Capt. Grant proposed 
arbitration of our differences, Mr. Sappington and 
myself to appoint one of the arbitrators and Capt. 
Grant anotlier, decision to be left to them, the ex- 
pense of this adjustment to be borne by which ever 
party was shown to be in the wrong. This plan 
proving entirely acceptable, I named Ben Lovejoy, 
a neighbor, as our choice as arbitrator. Capt. 
Grant imediately met this proposition with the 
statement that Mr. Lovejoy was entirely satisfac- 
tory to him and it was decided that the finding of 
Mr. Lovejoy should be final. The decision was in 
our favor and adverse to Capt. Grant, who at once 
paid the bill in accordance with the agreement. 
This is the only business deal in which I ever en- 
tered with the future President. At that time 
Grant was engaged in the hauling of wood and the 
old wagon with span of white and black horses was 
a familiar sight on the Reavis Jefferson Barracks 
road and the Gravois road. I have heard it stated 



104 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



that he used a yoke of oxen for hauling, but this is 
incorrect as he owned one of the best pulling teams 
in those parts. It was his boast that his span of 
black and white could pull a load of 60 bushels of 
wheat on the dirt roads, which were none too good 
for heavy hauling in those days. 

I met Grant a great many times during the early 
50's and in the spring of '55 was present at the 
building of his log cabin. On this particular day 
I had been obliged to cease work by an attack of 
ague, but later in the day feeling improved I was 
attracted to the Grant place by the sound of axes 
and saws and found the log cabin in active course 
of construction. It was a typical house raising of 
early days, familiar then but long since passed out 
of custom. The trees had been felled and the logs 
hewed and scored by Grant himself in preparation 
of the event; neighbors had ridden in and under 
Grant's direction timbers were raised and before 
sundown the cabin was practically — with the ex- 
ception of the roof — completed, this portion being 
left to be finished by the owner the following day, 
Grant carrying up one corner of the cabin. Those 
who were present and who assisted in the raising 
of the cabin were : 

Harrison Long, Upshaw McCormick, Zeno Mac- 
key, Thaddius Lovejoy, Perry Sappington, Lint 
Sappington, Mr. Wise. 

Grant and family occupied this house for several 
years until he gave up the peaceful pursuit of the 
field. As a farmer Grant was a hard worker and 
his lack of success was not due to any lack of efifort 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 



105 



He did not know how to get the results out of ag- 
riculture and this was the sole cause of his failure 
as a farmer. 

The last time I saw Grant was at the surrender 
of Ft. Donnellson, the 16th of February, 1862, 
when our forces were taken prisoners and the 
sword of surrender awarded to General Grant. He 
visited his old home in 1863 or 1864, but I did not 
see him at that time. I was advised, however, that 
he had given it out that he would be glad to do any- 
thing possible for any of "the boys" in the neighbor- 
hood. 





-^anj^-ey} 



106 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



fi^;^^ 




The opening of the 
centennial and Grant's 
,^ last smoke are contri- 

'f' butions hy Mr. C. E. 

Meade, a newspaper 
correspondent ot such widespread 
reputation and popularity that lit- 
tle reference is called for in the 
wav of introductory. 



He was born on July 
25, 1850, and is known as one of the young old men. His serv- 
ices as a writer have been engaged by the leading newspapers 
and magazines of the country for the past 35 years, and be- 
ing a man of more than ordinary ability, his assignments were 
such as to keep him in close touch with events of national in- 
terest. 

The two anecdotes that follow date back to a period when 
as a journalist for one of America's leading publications, he 
was assigned to special work, which enabled him to study 
some of the characteristics of General Grant. 



GENERAL GRANT'S LAST SMOKE. 



It was ill the autumn of '82 that I landed at my 
old home, Goshen, N. Y., where I had not visited in 
many j^ears. I learned that Gen. Grant was visit- 
ing at- the Goldsmith stock farm, some five or six 
miles below the town. The impulse to go down 
there grew stronger and the second day after my ar- 
rival at Goshen I drove out through the historic 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 107 



old town where Geu. AA'ashingtiurs headquarters 
stood for half a (-(^iitiiry after the revolution had 
t'losed. 

It was a perfect October day, as the tine Haniil- 
tonian that I drove glided ont the wide street that 
is lined as you near the suburbs Avitli relics of 
Colonial days. The old Gen. Wickhani residence 
still stood surrounded by its great park and grand 
old oak trees. In the attic of this old mansion when I 
Avas a boy, over 40 years ago, with others of nij' age, 
I rummaged the historic building looking for relics 
of the past ; but never was rewarded with anything 
in particular until some carpenters came to make 
changes in the structure which had been bought by 
Iv. H. Burdell, president of the Erie railroad, and a 
staunch partisan and friend of Gen. Grant in war 
times. It Avas then the mechanics unearthed a 
great roll of Continental money, of no value except 
as relics of the Revolutionary times. The bulk of 
the primitive old scrip was sent to Gen. Grant at 
the close of the war by Mr. Burdell. 

I remend)er as I neared the famous farm of Alden 
Goldsmith, the most noted breeder of tine trotters 
in the country, I caught a glimpse of the Wallkill 
river stretching away like a great belt of silver 
past Stoney Ford, near which the Goldsmith place 
was located along the banks of the peerless stream 
I noticed that the burrs of the chestnut trees along 
the road were wide open, and I tied the horse to 
the fence, got out and picked up a pocket full. 

When I drove up to the Goldsmith place, 1 saw the 
famous horseman and the more famous soldier view- 



108 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



ing- some flue colts in the yard of one of the great 
stables, and I at once turned in, when a stable man 
took the horse I was driving in charge, and I walked 
over to where the owner of the farm and the Gen- 
eral were, standing. Mr. Goldsmith came forward 
and I renewed a boyhood acquaintance that was 
formed when I was a printers' devil on the Goshen 
Democrat, conducted by my uncle, after whom I 
was named, and one of the oldest papers in the 
State of New York. 

Mr. Goldsmith presented me to Gen. Grant as a 
relative of Gen. George G. Meade, of Gettysburg 
fame and representative of a New York paper. The 
General looked worn and somewhat haggard, but 
he was the same unassuming Grant that the world 
knew so well. 

Conversation drifted along through channels of 
no imtioual importance for awhile, when I^dove 
do^^ 11 into my pocket and drew forth a handful of^ 
the chestnuts I had gathered and handed them to 
Gen. Grant, which he took, thanking me in His quiet 
way and remarking: 

''Ah ! these remind me of my early lays at West 
Point and the more recent and stirring times down 
in Virginia. I have always been fond of chestnuts, 
and have gathered many of them, but I am afraid 
my aftlictioii will i)r()hibit my swallowing these." 

"I'll tix them all right. General. I will have them 
boiled, and then they are as soft as cooked pota- 
toes/' said Mr. Goldsmith. 

"All right, Goldsmith, you iiia3^ be the doctor," 
replied Grant with a smile. 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 109 

Grant was suffering at the time with the can- 
cerous growth in liis throat, and came away out in 
Orange county for a change of scene and a brief 
visit and recreation at the beautiful stock farm by 
the rippling Wallkill river. 

tShortly after the chestnut incident, the Gen- 
eral took out his cigar case, passing it to Mr. Gold- 
smith and myself, then silenth^ picking one out and 
liolding it between his fingers, he looked at it sadly 
for a moment. 

"Gentlemen," he said, and I thought there was 
a slight quaver in his voice, "this is the last cigar 
I shall ever smoke. The doctors tell me that I will 
never live to finish the work on which my whole en- 
ergy is centered these days (meaning the memoirs 
he was engaged in writing at the time), if I do not 
cease indulging in these fragrant weeds. It is 
hard to give up an old and cherished friend, that 
has been your comforter and solace through many 
weary nights and days. But my unfinished work 
must be completed, for the sake of those that are 
near and dear to me;" and then the General slowly 
lighted the solacing torch and for a few moments 
gazed over the browning fields and the rich coloring 
of the autumn foliage among which myriads of mi- 
grating blackbirds made merry as they clung to the 
limbs, and the golden sunshine filled, the Avorld 
about us with a wealth of autumn glories. Still 
amidst the beauty of the surroundings a sadness 
filled my heart tliat hushed my lips to silence as 
I contemplated the stricken hero before me slowly 
puffing his last cigar. 



110 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

I left shortly afterward, and the pathetic picture 
hovered like a pall, making the glory of the autumn 
skies seem dull and dreary as I drove swiftly 
through scenes that would have gladdened my soul 
under different circumstances. 
GENERAL GRANT AT THE CENTENNIAL. 

The only l*resident of these United States who 
lias participated personally in the ceremonies at- 
tending the opening of a great exposition was 
Ulysses S. Grant. He touched no magic button 
at long range to fornmlly start the Avheels and flags 
flying at the Centennial of 187(), but stood out upon 
the steps of the speakers' stand, facing tlie multi- 
tude in front of the middle entrance of the main 
building, and directly in front of the Art Gallery, 
in the midst of soldiers, civilians and the diplomatic 
corps representing all the civilized nations, looked 
over the vast sea of faces, down the lines of marines 
that guarded the l)road walk from the terrace on 
which the stand was erected. 

Slowly he turned his eyes from building to build- 
ing as if to note the ju'esence of the furled flags and 
then taking off his hat, he raised his right hand, 
and waved it in a sweeping circle that took in the 
groups of buildings. Instantly the eyes of the multi- 
tude saw a flag creeping up the staff of every build- 
ing. 

Just as the wind that came soft and gentle from 
far off southland caught and unfurled to the glori- 
ous sunshine and balmy air our starry emblems 
the bands burst forth with the '^Star Spangled Ban- 
ner," wafting the inspiring strains far across the 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. Ill 



flowering- vistas that stretched out to the Schuylkill 
and far down towards the Wissihicken. 

One grand shout went up from the wildly en- 
thused mass of patriots, while the Old Commander 
stood forth in bold relief, still uncovered, his face 
aglow. That old flag that he and his brave follow- 
ers had so herocially fought for was an inspiration 
that Avell might stir the patriot's heart and soul to 
their very depths. 

The group that flanked the President was all life 
and aninmtion. Beautifull}' gowned ladies, and the 
shine of the gilded uniforms of the oflicers, blended 
in harmonious colorings that gave more light and 
life to the scene. 

That picture rises before me now as vividly as it 
stood out in the sunshine of that matchless May 
day in 1876. 

Probably five minutes had elapsed, when Presi- 
dent Grant turned, bowing before the Empress of 
Brazil, the Consort of Dom Pedro, the stately, sil- 
ver haired ruler of that country by the tropic sea. 
The President offered his arm to the Empress. She 
was slightly taller than the hero of Appomatox, but 
as she took the proffered arm and started with the 
President to lead the way to the middle entrance to 
the main building, one forgot the difference in 
height of the two, to gaze upon the stalwart form 
of Dom Pedro as he stepped to the side of Mrs. 
Grant to present himself as her escort. 

The head of the Brazilian government was a 
striking figure as he came down the steps with the 
wife of America's most eminent citizen and soldier 



112 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



Oil his arm, iiiimediateh' behind his wife and the 
riesident. FoHowing came Gen. Hawley, the 
director of the Centennial Expo>sition, with some 
hidy wliom I cannot now recall ; then followed the 
others down the sunny steps, throiiiih lines of 
Uncle Sam's sea soldiers, with presented arms 
formin<>- a procession strikingly resplendent and im- 
pressive. 

The spirit of '76 was in the genial air, and the 
matchless hhie of heaven, with here and there a 
cloud Hoating like a snow wraith across its azure 
dome, the green sward, the flowers, the rustling fol- 
iage of the trees and the bright sunshine over all, 
tended to add to the inspiring scenes as they shifted 
and shimmered. 

Patriotism was rampant until it rode rough shod 
over all. 

As the procession reached the place where I was 
standing, just outside the ropes, next the marines, 
I watched an opportunity and slipi)ed unobserved 
under and passed down with the <jthers and into the 
main building. No one interfered, and with news- 
paper instinct I looked for every incident that could 
tend to build a story for the day. 

Tliere were many things to write about, but the 
climax came in about twenty minutes after the en- 
trance of the dignitaries into tlie great structure. 
President (xrant had led the party toward the east 
entrance along the south side of the building, re- 
turning westward by the northern aisle, intending 
to pass on and out by the extreme western entrance 
and thence to machinerv hall. 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 113 



Just about the time the Presidential party was 
passinji- the point were it had entered tlie building, 
by some oversight or mistake the doors were thrown 
wide oiJen, wlien a wild rush of men, women and 
children came in like a torrent, as resistless as the 
wild watere that laid waste the beautiful valley of 
the Connimaw when the North Fork dam broke, 
sending its floods roaring into gorges, carrying 
everything as they sped on to deal a death Idow at 
the heartof Johnstown, just at a time when the 
white bloom of the laurels was floating down from 
the mountain side and the perfume of the rose gar- 
dens that bordered the resistk^ss river were fllling 
the erstwhile peaceful June air with tlieir fra- 
grance. 

It was a boisterous tide of humanity that came 
surging in upon the I'residcnt an<l his guests, push- 
ing uuiuy of them aside with a shocking rudeness 
that marred the harmony and disturbed the equilib- 
rium of many of the dignitaries. 

AVith the Spanish ministers party tliere was a 
beautiful dark eyed girl of not more than eigh- 
teen years, gowned and decked in Spanish colors. 
Pdack and .vellow satin were the materials and col- 
ors of the artistic dress. Kich and rare was tlie 
lace of the trimmings. The train was elegant and 
sweeping. Her bright and animated face drew the 
admiring gaze of every one that saw it. But all 
people and faces hxvked alike to the stampeding 
patriots as they pressed on shouting like wild In- 
dians. 

The l»eautiful Spanish niaiden was swept away 



114 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



from her escort by the torrent of humanity ; 
whirled along like a pillow on the crest of a flood. 

General Hartranft, who was then Governor of 
the Keystone State, rushed into the thickest of the 
mob to rescue the girl from her disagreeable en- 
vironment, his tall soldierly form looming up above 
the rabble as he shouted : 

"Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Have some respect for 
our invited guests." 

Some coarse and unruly tongue from the invad- 
ing mob hurled back in loud and brutal tones, that 
sounded high above the din of the moment: "To 
h — 1 with you and your guests! We are as good 
as they are." 

The tide was sweeping the bewildered daughter 
of Spain farther and farther away from her 
friends, while Governor Hartranft was desperately 
struggling to reach her side. He finally succeeded. 
Picking her up in his arms he carried her out of 
her dilemma, placing her in front of President 
Grant, who gently took her by the hand, expressing 
his solicitude and deep regret for the indignity 
placed upon her, and leading her to her friends. 

She was dishevelled but game. She laughed 
heartily as she glanced down at her torn gown, the 
trail of which Avas rent and badly soiled. Her hat 
had been knocked into a cocked one, making her 
look really funny, but the incident did not seem 
to upset her in the least, and as soon as she was 
fixed up a little, she was ready to move on with the 
procession. 

The crowd scurried to all parts of the great build- 



I 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 115 



ing, but kept away from the old soldier President, 
who looked dangerous for a few moments. 

^'That crowd came like an infantry charge or the 
rush of foot ball players," remarked the Old Com- 
mander as the party moved westward. ''I believe 
those men will be sorry for their rash and rude acts 
when they think it over. If this building should 
suddenly take fire what chance would women and 
children stand of succor and safety with a mob like 
that !" concluded the President as the partj^ passed 
out the western entrance, where the state fenciblef? 
lined up in their Continental uniforms as the guard 
of honor. 

The President's ej^es glistened as they swept 
down the lines of the pride of Philadelphia's sol- 
diery. Turning to Dom Pedro Oen. Grant rtr 
marked : 

'^Emperor, you see that the spirit of '76 and the 
memory of Valley Forge still lives in this city where 
the cradle of liberty rocked the world, and the sign- 
ers of the Declaration of Independence lighted the 
torch of freedom to illume it." 

"Every one should be proud that they are Ameri- 
cans to-day, surely," replied the Emperor. " 'Tis 
truly inspiring," 

Many an old soldier in the ranks of the fencibles, 
who had followed the Old Commander on trying 
marches and on bloody fields of battle could hardly 
restrain their enthusiasm as the soldier-President 
moved along their lines and when the party had 
disappeared into machinery hall a great shout went 
up from the soldiers in the uniforms of Washington 



116 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



and the heroes of his time. 

The party moved on to the great Corliss engine, 
where the President jiuUed the lever that started 
acres of machinery, with their thousands of wheels, 
in motion. No one was admitted to machinery hall 
until the President's party had moved across to 
the government building, which Gen. Grant seemed 
loth to leave. He explained the workings of the 
Gatling guns, near which the party spent all the 
time that was thought could be spent under exist- 
ing circumstances. 

Across the picturesque and peaceful ravine to 
agricultural hall and back to the art gallery the 
procession traveled, where it remained for half an 
hour or so looking over the beautiful scenes that 
presented themselves from that elevated position. 

"Providence has certainly provided an ideal day 
for tliis grand inaugural commemorative of free- 
dom's birth, has He not, Mr. President?" said Gen. 
Hawle}'. 

"General,'- replied the President, "God has al- 
ways been good to the Americans, and let us hope 
that at the close of the next century he will still be 
on our side." 

After some fifteen minutes of infornuil conversa- 
tion, the carriages came, and I Avalked outside the 
gates to see the Old Commander and the nation's 
guests pass off down the road across the common 
upon which flitting clouds cast shadows like blots 
on the sunlit green. 

I did no!" return within the grounds. So the 
charm of the opening day of the great Centennial 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 11' 



for me passed awav when the Old rommander's 
carriage vanished far doA\ii (Jirard avenue. 
THE SECOND ELECTION OF GEN. GRANT. 



Having been permitted to cast my first vote for a 
President of the United States at the second elec 
tion of General Grant in 1872, I was eager to see 
that it went regularly into the ballot box, and I 
did. There were numerous warnings sent out ad- 
monishing all voters to be vigilant and insist upon 
seeing their votes placed in the box by the clerks 
of election. One of the warnings to voters was 
headed in this style: 

''LET US HAVE PEACE, 
but see that our ballots are squarely boxed, even if 
we have to fight.'' 

I went early, but not often to the polling place, 
at Seventh avenue and Seventeenth street, in New 
York City, and qualified as a voter. The clerk who 
received my ballot, was a big, burly fellow and 
seemed in no hurry to put it in the box. I asked 
him to do so, and he growled back at me : 

"Dat'll be attended to all right, see?'' 

"No, I don't see, but I'm bound to see," was 
my reply, and I did see the ballot containing the 
Grant electors dropped into that sacred box. 

''Hope yer satisfied now," snarled a judge. 

I was and took my departure to follow the events 
of the day throughout the city. There were many 
stirring scenes but the Old Commander was run- 
ning strong. 

The only big newspaper in New York City that 



118 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 

was giving its liearty support to the President was 
The Times. 

At the head of its editorial columns it flaunted 
in bold, black type, quotations from Horace 
Greely's utterances against the Democratic pai-ty, 
and fought valiantly for the re-election of the Presi- 
dent. 

About 10 o'clock that night the Times ran out 
a transparency announcing that Philadelphia had 
given 50,000 majority for Grant amidst the wildest 
enthusiasm. 

A few moments later the Tribune launched a big, 
bright bulletin announcing to the throng gathered 
in front of the offices : 

"Philadelphia gives Grant a majority of 50,000, 
but the State will overcome this handsomely and 
give her electoral vote to Greely and Braun." 

Another flash from the Times office and the mul- 
titude read these words and shouted itself hoarse : 

"City of Philadelphia and the State of Pennsyl- 
vania rolls up the astounding majority of 100,000 
for the Old Commander." 

The transparency on the Tribune building flick- 
ered for a moment and then darkness cast a mantle 
of gloom over the scene, while the crowds went wild 
over the Pennsylvania landslide to Grant and Wil- 
son. 



OF GEN. U. S. .GRANT. 



119 



Before dawn the next morning the world knew 
there was no doubt that for the second time General 
Grant had swept the country. For the second time 
he learned that Republics are not always ungrate- 
ful. 



I 



120 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 




CAPTAIN S. O. HEMEN- 
WAY. Born in Geneva, N. 
Y., in 1833, his parents short- 
ly afterwards removing to 
Buffalo. In 1841 he was a 
messenger boy in a general 
store, and m 1850 to 1852 he 
was station agent at State 
Line between Pennsylvania 
and New York. In 1854 he 
became purser on the 
steamer Oriental, running be- 
tween Buffalo and Chicago, 
and learned navigation from 
Captain Heber Squares. 

In 1857 Captain Hemenway went to Kansas, going by steam- 
boat from St. Louis to Westport Landing, now Kansas City, 
and from there by stage to Lecompton, then capital of Kan- 
sas, where he kept a hotel for one year. At this time gold 
was discovered in the mountains and the city of Denver wa."^ 
laid out. The following year he removed to Denver and 
opened a hotel in a log cabin of one room, without door, 
window or a floor. One of his guests took Hemenway's pony 
and traded it for a claim, out of which he took $7,000 in one 
day, giving Hemenway half. After a time Captain Hemenway 
and his family moved back East. 

He started for St. Paul, but switched to New Orleans, in 
order to recover a drove of horses that he had left at St. Jo- 
seph, Mo. This was just prior to the opening of the civil 
war, and there was some trouble in getting North. At St. 
Paul he accepted the management of the International Hotel. 
A year later he helped to build the St. Paul & Pacific Rail- 
way, while the now millionaire James J. Hill was a shipping 
clerk for a firm in St. Paul. He later took the management 
of the Nicollet Hotel at Minneapolis, incidentally serving as 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 121 



a captain against the Indians during their uprising. He later 
contracted with the Union Army to supply General Shelle's 
army with hay which was cut between the White and Arkan- 
sas Rivers. 

Toward the close of the war Captain Hemenway went to 
Cincinnati and bought the steamer Miami, which he ran be- 
tween Memphis and Little Rock. This proved a successful 
financial venture until the steamer had the misfortune of a 
boiler explosition, at which time 187 of her 312 passengers 
lost their lives. At the time of the explosion Captain Hemen- 
way's family were at Memphis, and he was on a trip to St. 
Louis. 

The loss of the Miami bankrupted Hemenway, but in a 
short while he started with the little steamer Goldfinch, mak- 
ing trips between St. Louis and Chester. In 1867 he was of- 
fered and accepted command of a boat in the Memphis & St. 
Louis Line, and was on the G. W. Graham, Belle of Mem- 
phis and the Adam Jacobs, finally becoming agent of the com- 
pany. While master of the G. W. Graham he made a trip up 
the Missouri to the mouth of the Yellowstone in the employ 
of the Government. The trip to Fort Buford took 76 days, 
the return to St. Louis being made in eight days and nine 
hours. Captain Hemenway left the agency of his line for one 
year, during which period he ran a little steamer in the lower 
coast trade from New Orleans to Belize, but at the request 
of the company, returned to St. Louis and resumed the agency 
again. 

He has always taken considerable interest in politics, and 
at the time referred to placed in nomination for Congress 
Erastus Wells, father of Mayor Rolla Wells. Captain Hemen- 
way ran for County Auditor, but was not elected. His Re- 
publican competitor proved a defaulter for $225,000 and went 
to the penitentiary. Captain Hemenway was at one time As- 
sistant Doorkeeper to the House of Representatives. Cap- 
tain Hemenway has bought and sold a number of well-known 
steamers and has also been identified with the promotion of 

many well-known enterprises. 

He brought from New York and erected at Monterey, Mex- 
ico, the first electric light plant operated in Mexico. General 
Diaz was so pleased with the result that he invited Captain 
Hemenway and his family to spend several months with him 



122 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



at the City of Mexico as liis guests. 

At the solicitation of Senators Brice, English and Barnum, 
Captain Hemenway became an advisory member of the Na- 
tional Democratic Committee and served in that capacity in 
the city of New York during the campaign of 1888. 

He is at the present time identified with one of the most 
successful enterprises in the World's Fair City, acting in the 
capacity of President of the American Hotel, which is situated 
at the terminus of the Transit and Suburban lines. 



During: the Avinter of '79 and '80 I owned and 
commanded the "Steamer Arrow/' running on the 
St. John river, Fla. Coming down the river with 
a fair load of passengers destined for the North to 
attend wedding, burials, and places of amusement, 
I found the steamer Pastime hard aground on Volu- 
sia dam. She was making a special trip with Gen- 
eral U. S. Grant and wife, General Fred Grant and 
wife, General Phil. Sheridan, Mr. Seligman, wife, 
SOD, and daughter. As her stay was problematic, 
and the distinguished parties time was so allotted, 
as to require their arrival at Enterprise, where a 
mass of people of that locality had congregated, to 
entertain the distinguished part^', I therefore 
rounde<l the "Arrow," and getting alongside of the 
disabled boat, and taking the party of twenty-two 
on board the "Arrow," and proceeded up that 
crooked, intrepid stream. The night was awfullj'' 
dark, made more so by the interlocking branches 
on either side. 

General Grant, Sheridan and General Fred 
Grant viewed the grandeur of that stream A\ith me 
from the pilot house. Their social qualities were 
demonstrated by wagering Avith each other, on the 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 123 



next turn or s^^'iug■ of the boat, as the river was so 
narrow it required "hard a star board and hard a 
port," keeping her continually on the swing. That 
General Grant should not lose any of these petty 
wagers, I tipped his foot one to the right, and two 
to the left ; he soon was in possession of all the small 
change Sheridan and Fred had. 

AA'e arrived at Lake Monroe, which, by the way, 
is one of the most beautiful iulaud lakes in Florida. 
The thousands of Floridans, who had congregated 
to pay their respects to General Grant and party, 
surrounded this lake. Their tires had about gone 
out when the "Arrow" entered the lake, but upon 
the blast of her Avhistle they recognized the return 
of the "Arrow" with the distinguished party on 
board. The fires were immediately rekindled, giv- 
ing a glorious picture to the entire surroundings. 
The boat landed at Enterprise at midnight, the 
party was received by a committee and banqueted 
at the hotel, where a grand reception took place. 

At 9 a. m. General Grant and his part}^ re-em- 
barked. We crossed the lake to Sandford, where 
he was greeted by thousands of his admirers, who 
took him in hand and with a iirocession of all 
clases of vehicles, visited the orange groves. Our 
return trip down the river was without incident, 
arriving at the mouth of the Oclawahau river, 
where a small steamer was waiting to take the dis- 
tinguished party up that historical stream. We 
arrived at 7 o'clock p. m., where the part}' disem- 
barked. 

On leaving the "Arrow" the ladies of the party 



124 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



were profuse with their thanks for the hospitality 
shown them by the passengers and crew. General 
Grant was the last to leave. While passing over 
the gang plank he placed both hands upon my 
shoulder and said : ''Captain, you have the honor 
of being the only man who ever captured General 
Grant; I'll get even with you, old boy." 

A little incident occurred showing the social 
quality of this distinguished gentleman. A gentle- 
man and passenger on the boat "butted in" while 
the General Avas renewing his cigar, his Jap servant 
came with a box of cigars which he tendered to 
me and then passed it to the stranger. The stranger 
accepted the cigar and taking out his knife punc- 
tured the end of the cigar, while Grant cut off the 
end of his. The gentleman asked General Grant 
if he had ever punctured his cigars, by doing so all 
of the nicotine was concentrated in the end. Gen- 
eral Grant said : "Yes ; I punctured my cigars for 
years, but as I visited the cigar manufacturers in 
Jacksonville, I noticed that the Cubans and negroes 
rolled them up and placing their fingers in their 
mouths twisted the small end to a point. Noticing 
this peculiarity in cigar makers, I concluded that 
I had chewed that kind of paste long enough. Since 
then I have been cutting them off," suiting the ac- 
tion to the word. 




OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 



125 




You ask for my antecedents ; here they are : 
I am born of pure Saxon blood, college bred. In 
order to support my mother, I learned the trade 
of a machinist and in that capacity, helped to build 
the first locomotive west of the Mississippi river, 
at Palm & Robertson's shop on Third and Mul- 
bery streets, in this city. I hit my fin-^ers, instead 
of my chisel and Avas laid up for repairs and had to 
abandon m,y vocation. I became an electroplater. 
My shop was where the Granite building is now, on 
Fourth street, south of Market. I made my own 
batteries and my tools before the anvil. Drifted 
to Jefferson City, where I was employed with 
Clooney, Crawford &; Co., corner High and Madi- 
son. I could not stand the beautiful climate and 
came back to St. Louis when T organized in 1860 the 



126 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



Tenth AVaid Saviiit; Association, of which I was one 
of its officers. Kesijined niv x^ositiou to enter the U. 
S. Volunteers in 1861, under first call of Abraham 
Lincoln. At expiration of my term of enlistmenl 
wanted to join aj^ain, but Frank Blair, whom I 
adore as a political saint, said, "No, you take 
charge of the internal revenue business," which I 
subsequently oroanized and during eight years, col- 
lected and accounted to the National Government 
the sum of forty million dollars, every cent of 
which passed through my hands. 

When the whiskey ring was formed in 1869, I re- 
signed and in the next year was elected treasurer 
of the then County of St. Louis. The Republicans 
would not let me in, as on a previous occasion. T 
was elected again treasurer by the largest majority 
any one ever received up to that time, from which 
election I am still suffering in this: that in the 
financial storm of 1873, a banking house failed, 
Avhich had |80,000 of my money which it honestly 
kept and I had to settle the amount, which settled 
me too. Since then I have been a "penny a liner" for 
newspapers and wrote otherwise to catch a penny 
and am still so engaged, 

RE.AIINISOENOES. 

You want to know something about Gen. Grant. 
Well, I knew him, but not intimately. Part of what 
I knew of him is as follows : 

^'Nlien he came from California, where he was sta- 
tioned, resigning his commission as captain in the 
army and, I think in the year 1848, he married here, 
and settled at White Haven, across River Des 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 127 



Peres, on a lot of 150 acres, given him by his father- 
in-law. Col. Dent. He built the cabin with the as- 
sistance of his neighbors, now located on the 
World's Fair grounds, and employed himself indus- 
triously in preparing the ground, by cutting the 
trees on the premises and hauling the wood to town 
by way of Gravois road. Everybody knows of this. 

On his way to town, and coming back to his place 
he frequently stopped at grocery stores and con- 
tracted small debts. When he was appointed Brig- 
adier-General he came home on a furlough and 
stopped at each grocery store on the Gravois road 
and paid his little debts, years ago contracted, and 
the strangest part was he knew exactly the amount 
he owed to each. This is simply recorded to show 
his honesty and a remarkable memory, of what hap- 
pened years ago. 

You want to know why he left St. Louis, well, 
I'll tell you. In 1855 or there abouts he had form- 
ed a co-partnership with one of his relatives, I have 
forgotten the name, in the real estate business. 
Business did not flourish and having a knowledge 
of engineering, acquired at West Point, made an ap- 
plication to the county cmmissioners or County 
Court for the position of County Surveyor, the ap- 
pointment of which was with this Court. 

A Mr. Solomon Avas his opponent and by a vote 
of the County Court Mr. Solomon was appointed 
the Surveyor of the county of St. Louis. Capt. 
Grant was very much disappointed, as the presi- 
dent of the County Court, Dr. Wm. Taussig, had 
been his family physician and knew him well. Af- 



128 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



ter the proceedings of the Court and Capt. Grant 
knew the result he felt disheartened and sat on the 
east front steps of the Court House and keenly felt 
his failure to obtain this position very much. 

A friend passed by and saw Grant and said: 
'^Capt., you look drowsy, what is the matter?" 
Well, the Captain replied : ^'No American can get 
anything in this town." Solomon, the appointee 
was of foreign birth. ''I am going to leave this 
town at once," and this is the cause the Captain left 
for Galena, Illinois. Why he engaged himself in 
the tanning business, this is not quite clear. Any- 
way, when the war broke out, he went to Spring- 
field, Illinois, and obtained a position in the en- 
rolling office as a clerk. The 21st Ills. Regiment ar- 
I'ived at Springfield and an unruly crowd it was 
which were gathered in the northern part of Illi- 
nois, and the Colonel reported at headquarters that 
he could not control the boys. This was reported 
to the War Governor Yates, the father of the pres- 
ent Governor of Illinois, who saw Grant, was im- 
pressed with his manners and appointed him to the 
Colonelcy of this regiment. Under ordinary circum- 
stances the railroad would have been used to trans- 
port the regiment to its destination in the South; 
not so with Colonel Grant. 

He marched to the place ordered and on the 
way trained the boys to such an extent that his 
regiment became known as one of the most efficient 
in the service. This is the way the career of our 
beloved Commander commenced. History tells the 
balance of his achievements. 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 129 



While he was here he sometimes left his team on 
the road, sitting down on the roadside letting his 
team pass along on a snltry day. He fell asleep. 
Sappington's negro, passing by seeing his master's 
neighbor, asked him to get into his little market 
wagon. Being drowsy and the roads being bad and 
full of holes and through the jolting of the wagon, 
Grant fell into the bed of the wagon, in which some 
of the garden truck was, not sold in the market, and 
when Grant's place was nearly reached the Captain 
got off. 

In the morning Sappington looked about and 
found the balance of the garden products in a de- 
lapidated condition, and calling Sam, the negro, 
said, "What in the h — 1 did you do with the water 
melons, they are mashed up?" "Well, sah," the old 
honest negro stated the incident of what happened 
with Capt. Grant, and said to his master, "Dem 
crushed watah mellon is the imprint of Captain 
Grant, sah." 

Several of such incidents happened. When 
Grant was elected President for the first time he 
visited St. Louis. Among the committee receiving 
him was Dr. Taussig, well and favorably known to 
most St. Louisans. 

Gen. Grant recognized his old friend at once 
and addressed him as "Judge." This nettled Dr. 
Taussig somewhat as it flashed into his mind about 
the little incident happening some years ago, when 
he had given his preference to Mr. Solomon in the 
appointment of County Surveyor of St. Louis 
county. As Mr. Taussig was known to Gen. Grant 



130 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



as Dr. Taussig, so Mr. Taussig said, "General, I 
hope the little incident happening years ago when 
(Solomon Avas appointed County Surveyor and you 
were an applicant has nothing to do with you call- 
ing me eTudge." General Grant smilingly tapped 
Mr. Taussig on the back and said, "No, my dear 
sir ; I owe you a debt of gratitude. If you had made 
me County Surveyor I would not be President of 
the United States now." 

This shows and confirms Grant's well known do- 
mestic habits, as he would have stayed right home 
with his family, whom he loved so much. This in a 
measure shows the true character of the man 
Grant. 

I was at the inaugural ball in Washington, 1869, 
and I never saw a more modest man bear such great 
honors than he did; there was certainly nothing of 
haughtiness in the make-up of Gen. Grant. I was 
there with a friend and a co-officer, Capt. Hy. C. 
Wright, an intimate friend and neighbor of the 
President, when he- dwelt at White Haven across 
River Des Peres. Capt. Wright had the finest 
house in the neighborhood and Capt. Grant was 
a gladly seen guest at Wright's home. So when 
Grant was inaugurated my friend, Capt W^right, 
went to the White House, where he had a 
pleasant chat with ]Mrs. Grant and then went to 
Gen. Grant's office, who was much pleased to see 
him. "Well, Captain," the General said, after a 
while, "what can I do for you?" Capt. Wright ex- 
pained that he was here Avith a friend and that he 
had just helped me to make a satisfactory settle- 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 131 



meiit of five million dollars which we had collected 
in the revenue service and that now we were about 
going home. 

He further stated that I was a Democrat and he 
was a Ilepublican, that he thought that after the 
administration had changed he would take care 
of me. Well Grant said, "You go home and think 
what you want an make your application and hand 
it to me." Captain Wright went home and pon- 
dered all by himself and in due time went to Presi- 
dent Grant and handed him his application as 
agent of the Kiowas, who were then in the Pan 
Handle of Texas. 

Grant looked at it and said, "What do you want 
that for?" Capt. Wright replied, "I thought it 
would suit me." Well," Grant said, "you will be 
appointed," and made some memoranda on the back 
of the application and said, "I will send your com- 
mission to St. Louis." 

I had gone to the Capitol, and walking down 
Pennsylvania avenue about midway, I met the 
Captain, who I saw was all aglow with pleasure. 
I said in meeting him, knowing where he had been, 
"Well, how is it?" He related the story just told 
when I said, "I am pleased to know this. I am going 
to NeAv York now and would like you to go with me, 
but if I were you, I would stay here until you get 
your appointment, or place your affairs in the 
hands of a friend." He said, "You're a fool ; it's all 
right." "All right," I said, "let's go." We went to 
New York, stayed there a few days and then went 
to St. Louis. When we arrived at St. Louis I 



132 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



picked up a paper and the first thing I saw was 
that someone else had been appointed to the place 
my friend had sought. 

Capt. Wright was afterwards appointed as Ap- 
praiser of Merchandise in St. Louis and when his 
term expired was appointed again. I simply men- 
tion this incident to show that Grant never forgot 
his friends, and a failure to appoint Wright as In- 
dian Agent Avas caused by the fact that Grant was 
so beset by the Indian ring that he could not ap- 
point Wright to that position, but he never forgot 
him. One of my sons was in 1876 appointed by 
President Grant to Annapolis as naval cadet. 

I resigned my position as revenue ofl6.cer in June, 
1869, when the whiskey ring was formed. This 
steal went on for some time. Chas. W. Ford was 
appointed as collector and parties in charge of the 
manipulation of the whiskey ring made Mr. Ford 
believe that this was all done in favor of the "Old 
Man," as they called Gen. Grant, for another term. 
Time passed on and Mr. Ford, who was an honest 
man, but things got so hot for him that he resolved 
to see Grant himself about this matter. Grant was 
at the coast in some watering place. Ford had 
been a schoolmate of Grant's and they were on very 
intimate terms with each other, so without ado 
Ford said, "General, I suppose you know what we 
are doing in St. Louis and that it's all right?" 
Grant said, "Charlie, you ought to know me bet- 
ter," and turned his back on him. 

Ford went to Chicago crestfallen and there died. 
The supposition was that he had poisoned himself. 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 



133 



I simply mention this to show that Grant was thor- 
oughly honest and had no conception of the steal 
which was going on in St. Louis ostensibly in his 
behalf. The fact was that he was surrounded by 
men on the make, Avho kept everything of knowl- 
edge in these matters from him. It may be said in 
parenthesis that the then Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, a Mr. Bristow, was himself a candidate for 
the Presidency and the more Grant would be impli- 
cated, the better it would be for him. 

Subsequent affairs in New York with the money 
broker, Ives, who stole Grant's fortune, showed con- 
clusively that Grant was devoid of any business ca- 
pacity. A great soldier, but a very poor business 
man. 




134 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



The following is a speech delivered by the Hon. Jno. S. 
Wise before the Union League of Philadelphia: 



"THE HEROES OF THE SOUTH." 

The Chairinan : — I am now about to offer the last 
sentiment of the evenino-, and in doing so I must ex- 
press my thanks to the gentleman who will re- 
spond for the cheerful patience with which he has, 
even to this late hour, kept his promise that he 
would relieve me of the embarrassment occasioned 
by the departure of Mr. Watterson, and make the 
concluding speech. Gentlemen, John S. Wise is 
no stranger to the Union Leagiie. (Cheers) We 
honor his character and achievements ; we rejoice 
in his sunin^, sparkling ways, Avhich give his com- 
panionship so rare a charm, and we are never 
weary of his splendid eloquence. (Applause.) He 
is with us in special trust. We have on the walls 
of the League the features of his illustrious name- 
sake; of one whose name will be A^enerated while 
Philadelphia cherishes the patriotism of the early 
days — John Sergeant. (Cheers.) We might see on 
the walls of Virginia's capitol the features of an- 
other ancestor — the stern, intrepid Governor of 
Mrginia — whose hand stayed the mad sway of re- 
ligious fanaticism. The North claims Sergeant; 
A^irginia has no greater name than of Henry A. 
Wise. North and South are, therefore, to-night 
United in the person of our guest, recalling the leg- 
end of Prescott, the historian, over whose library 
door were crossed two muskets — (me borne l)y a 
Tory ancestor, and the other by an ancestor, under 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 135 



Washington as they fought at Bunker Hill. Mr. 
Wise gave the fervor of his youth to the Confeder- 
acy; he gives the wisdom of his manhood to the 
Union. As representing what was best, alike in 
Pennsylvania and Virginia, he will respond to a 
toast, which will ever be drank in the League with 
the respect due to self-denial and valor. I give you 
"The Heroes of the South," (Loud aplause) a hero- 
ism that belongs to American history, and which 
can never be forgotten while we honor and value 
American manhood. 

SPEECH OF HON. JOHN. S. WISE, OF 
AaRGINIA. 

Mr. Wise was received with loud and long-con- 
tinued cheers as he arose. He said : 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : — I came here ^o 
celebrate tlie 70th anniversary of the birth of Gen- 
eral (jrrant, but I fear we are getting along very 
rapidly towards the 71st (laughter). (It was after 
midnight.) 

This demand that I respond for *'the South" 
reminds me of the college debate where we dis- 
cussed "AA'hich was most responsible for killing the 
pig? The knife that slew him, or the grindstone 
that sharpened it?" I think I am here somewhat 
in the character of the grindstone for unless Grant 
had had us to sharpen up on there would have 
been no Grant (laughter). 

Sureh' no Southerner would take more pleasure 
than I do in honoring the memory of General 
Grant, and no place could be more congenial than 
the city of Phila<leli)hia. (Applause.) 



136 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



About your good city cluster many of the tender- 
est feelings of my heart. 

I have, at home, a letter dated Philadelphia, 
January 10, 1777, written by my great-grandfather 
to his wife. He was then a Captain in the Virginia 
line on Continental establishment, marching to 
join the army of A\'aKliington and afterwards took 
part in the battles of BrandyAvine and Germantown. 
Another letter bearing date Philadelphia, Decem- 
ber 4, 1708, from his daughter, my grandmother, 
then a school girl, was written within a stone's 
tliroAv of this spot. It tells of Philadelphia hos- 
pitality and social life, in a way that would surely 
int(^rest you. There were my Virginia kinsfolk of 
a hundred years ago identified with the City of 
Brotherly Love, and my father was named after 
Alexander Fuilerton of Philadelphia. My mother, 
too. was a Philadeli)hian, daughter of the John Ser- 
geant, whose portrait adorns your walls, and much 
of my cliildhood was i)assed among this noble peo- 
ple. (Applause.) 

My experiences here, at the close of the war were 
rather unique. I escaped the surrender of General 
Lee by being the bearer of despatches from him to 
Mr. Davis. Hearing of Lee's surrender T journeyed 
southward and joined Johnston's army, surrender- 
ing with it at Jamestown, and being temporarily 
out of employment, my military ventures having 
somewhat miscarried, I came at once to Philadel- 
phia, took up my domicile at the house of General 
Meade, who married my mother's sister, foraged 
on the enemy, and reviewed from time to time, the 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 137 



returning armies of the Union. (Laughter and ap- 
plause. ) 

Thus, in about two months, I had been in two 
Confederate and one Union army, and you will un- 
derstand by that circumstance that I am not sec- 
tional or partisan in the views I entertain as to the 
events then transpiring. ( Laughter. ) 

You must pardon all this. I have no speech pre- 
pared. Mr. Young, when he invited me, promised 
me faithfully he would not call upon me. I am 
merely a post-prandial bushwhacker. 

Dropping this view of personal reminiscence, and 
bearing in mind the lateness of the hour, let 
me say as a very humble representative of the Con- 
federate soldier, that, in my judgment, the time has 
come, and a sufficient period has elapsed for the 
subsidence of passion, for people on both sides to 
realize much that they could not appreciate when 
inflamed by the angry passions of war. I think we 
may now philosopliise somewJiat as to the causes 
and the results of the great struggle which made 
Grant famous. (Applause.) 

As nothing came out as I expected it would I 
sometimes amuse myself by thinking of what might 
have happened. ( Laughter. ) 

In the first place did it ever occur to you that 
any man who was on either side in that struggle 
might easily have been upon the other side? 
(Laughter and applause.) 

That, sounds absurd but it is not. Think how 
many Northern men were South and how many 
Southern men were North, merely through force 



138 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



of the accidental circumstances surrounding them 
at the outbreak of hostilities. (Laughter.) Robert 
E. Lee and George H. Thomas, were Lieutenant- 
Colonel and INfajor respectively, of the same regi- 
ment. Both considered long and patiently which 
side they would take, and where their duty lay. 
On eyery theory of probabilities Lee was the man 
who would remain with the LTnited States Army, 
and Thomas would go South. By eyery tradition 
Lee was a Federalist. The fame of his family had 
been earned in building up and sustaining the 
glory of the Union, for which his own blood had 
been shed in Mexico. He was the pet of General 
Scott, Commander-in-Chief of the Union Armies, 
and no favorite of Davis, or Bragg or Hardee, the 
leaders of the Confederacy. Above all, he was 
identified in every way with the feelings of that 
closest of all corporations in America, West Point, 
and had been taught to yield first allegiance to the 
Union. Thomas remained in the North. Lee went 
South. There Avas no telling, at that time, on 
which side men would fetch up. Pemberton and 
Lovell, both Northern men, cast their fortunes with 
the South. 

AVithin three weeks of the actual outbreak of 
hostilities one of those who afterwards became fam- 
ous as a Federal commander, Avas so earnest in his 
advocacy of the Southern view, that Southerners 
expected him to join them. I refer to that great, 
true, staunch Union soldier, John A, Logan. (Ap- 
plause. ) 

Did it ever occur to you that if Lee had decided 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 139 



differently, if he had remained in the North, if Gen- 
eral Scott had o'iven him command of the Union 
Army as he probably Avould have done, the war 
Avould have been ended so quickly that General 
Grant would never have had the opportunity to dis- 
play his greatness? 

I honestly believe such would have been the case 
if Lee had not gone South. I believe, that backed 
by the power and complete equipment the Union 
would have given him, General Lee would have 
wiped the Armies of the Confederacy off the face 
of the earth before the date of Vicksburg and Chat- 
tanooga. It is no disparagement of Grant to sug- 
gest these possibilities. They never occurred. His 
opportunity did come, and everybody, friend and 
foe alike, knows how he availed himself of them 
and proved his greatness. ( (Applause.) 

But we are merely talking about what might 
have been. It does no harm, and costs nothing. 
( Laughter. ) 

It was not so. Poor old Virginia! Virginia who 
had done so much to create, to establish, to perpet- 
uate, the ITnion. Virginia who had produced 
George Washington, the father of the LTnion, and 
John Marshall, the great expounder of the Consti- 
tution. Virginia, whose illustrious Scott was at 
that moment Commander-in-Chief of the Federal 
Armies. Virginia, linked not only by history and 
every tradition, but by ties of blood and intermar- 
riage, by daily social and business intercourse, with 
States like Pennsylvania. Virginia, who had earn- 
ed the title of Mother of States and Statesmen bv 



140 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



the territory she liad given, and the sons she had 
produced and whose lives had been dedicated to 
the cause of the Union. She, too, was called upon 
to decide, and cast her lot with the South. Men 
like Lee, followed her, just as the child who ques- 
tions not the wisdom of a mother, obeys her com- 
mands though they be against judgment or inclina- 
tion. 

There is doubtless still something irritating to 
the northern mind, in the clamor of States like 
Louisiana and Florida at that time. States that 
had been redeemed from vassalage to foreign des- 
potism, and bought by the money of the Federal 
Union, clamoring for their ''reserved rights;" but 
Virginia occupied no such position. She was placed 
in a trying and difficult situation, with many con- 
siderations swaying her to and fro. She was slow 
to act, and fully conscious of how much the step in- 
volved to herself and to others. In time to come 
men way wonder why she did at last resolve upon 
the effort to secede, but the deliberation and reluct- 
ance of her steps, the great sacrifices she made, the 
glorious part she bore, the sad fate which awaited 
her, will through all time curb and repress the feel- 
ing of bitterness or resentment towards Virginia. 
The wisdom of her decision may be questioned, her 
honesty, and the honesty of her sons who followed 
her, are, I hope and believe, above all question. 

One thing is certain. If she had not decided to 
secede, there would not have been any war of seces- 
sion worth talking about. (Applause.) 

Now let us do a little more supposing. Suppose 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 141 



the Southern Confederacy had succeeded, what 
would have been the result? 

Well, of course, we Southern people would not 
have had to explain so carefully and so frequently 
why it was we did not succeed. (Laughter.) It 
would have spared us a great deal of wounded 
pride. Still, I think we have enough left yet for 
all reasonable purpose. (Laughter.) 

Outside of these what would have happened? 
Our first duty would have been to endeavor to dis- 
cover how much paper money we had issued. God 
alone knows how much that was. I doubt if we 
would have finished counting it to this day. 
(Laughter.) Inevitable bankruptcy and repudia- 
tion awaited Confederate success. ' 

We could hope for no extended system of rail- 
roads. The institution of slavery, which would of 
course have been perpetuated, was opposed to any 
such freedom of intercourse. Except at two or 
three seaports there would have been no chance of 
large cities. Slavery does not encourage large 
cities. Manufacturers, bringing great bodies of 
free laborers would have been equally out of the 
question, and the Southern free trade doctrines 
would have prevented their introduction. England 
would have supplied all our manufactured arti- 
cles and foreign ships would have transported all 
our agricultural products. Agriculture would 
have been the chief employemnt. The Southern 
planters would have confined themselves to sugar 
and cotton. The factories of the cities, would, as 
of old, have advanced even the bacon to feed the 



142 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



slaves, and owned the crops before they were gath- 
ered. One-half the young men would have been in 
the standing armies necessary to protect our long 
line of frontier and prevent the escape of the sla,ves, 
the other half would have been engaged in agricul- 
ture pure and simple, or in the professions. Taxa- 
tion, continuous, heavy, grinding and insupport- 
able would have dispelled the glorious dreams of 
Southern independence, and long before now the 
Confederacy would have come to an end. 

Under pressure of these conditions the extreme 
Southern States would have made the effort to re- 
open the slave trade as a means of relief. To this 
Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri would never have 
consented. If the movement had been pressed to 
success they w«mld have seceded. If it failed the 
far South States would have seceded. Anybody 
could secede under the Confederate theory. And 
one by one, before now, all the old so-called border 
States would have patched up terms with their 
Northern brethren and have been back in the Union 
playing Yankee Doodle with all their might and 
feeling very comfortable at getting back by the fire- 
side in the old homestead of our fathers; and as 
they came, the same bright eyes and generous 
hearts that greet me here to-night, would have re- 
joiced and wept tears of joy that the Union of our 
fathers was preserved and that one flag floated over 
all the people of our land. (Applause.) 

Such, fellow citizens, is the way it might have 
happened, and, in my judgment, would have hap- 
pened, if it had not happened as it did. Some- 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 143 



thing greater and more powerful than the will of 
man presided over the destiny of this nation and 
preserved its unity. In the mysterious Providence 
of God that unity has been preserved and estab- 
lished in a different and more direct way than that 
way which I have suggested as a possibility. 

To the supreme result we have marched by a 
route infinitely more radical, filled with a million 
corpses, and strewn with wasted treasure. Along 
the way are seen the wrecks of many hopes, the 
destruction of many old things, the ruins of many 
ambitions, the abandoned skeletons of dead faiths 
and superstitions ; but at the end is seen a happier, 
freer and more united nation than could have been 
hoped for had tlie struggle been less fierce, or the 
sacrifices less complete. 

I cannot speak for any other human being but 
myself Avhen I say, that, although on the losing side 
in the great fratricidal strife, when I behold how 
thoroughly it settled all vexed questions, when I 
realize how fresh and fair and pure the future 
opens up to every portion of the land, I accept the 
results without one single regret. I believe the 
reward is worth every sacrifice of blood and treas- 
ure and that all has happened for the best. (Ap- 
plause. ) 

I say this without for one instant forgetting the 
valor and constancy of my Confederate comrades 
pursuing the right as they saw it. They were 
no seers. God forgive me if in aught I say, I seem to 
question the sincerity of their lives and deaths. 
How could they have lived and died so gloriously 



144 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



unless under the deep conviction that they were 
right. 

Grant appreciated this as few others did, and tes- 
tified to it in every manly way. 

It is that Avhich makes every true Confederate 
soldier venerate Grant's memory and hold his fame 
next to that of his own Commander. The Confeder- 
ate soldier has come to know Grant as the conscien- 
tious, brave, pertinacious upholder of the Union 
cause, who, fighting to the death for his convictions, 
was free from all bitterness, and who, whim his 
point had been fully carried, was anxious to for- 
give and to forget, and to build anew the fabric of 
fraternal love, without one reminiscent taunt or 
reproach. (Applause.) 

I heard the distinguished Secretary of the In- 
terior speak of Grant as he knew him in his youth. 
Like him, when I was a boy I knew Grant. But 
we made his acquaintance in different ways. I 
first heard his drums beat in the early morning as 
his interesting army lay in the mists that hung 
about the beleaguered lines of Petersburg. We be- 
lieved him to be a mere military butcher, so reck- 
lessly bent on carnage that we even hoped his own 
troops would turn against him for their remorse- 
less slaughter. 

I have seen his legions move forward to our as- 
sault. I have seen them repulsed, and again have 
fled before them. He is my old and honored friend, 
our dearest foe. While war was flagrant Ave did not 
fully understand him. It was not until we sur- 
rendered to him chat we realized how much of 



OF GEN. U. S. GRANT. 145 



noble magnanimity and generosity was mingled 
with the stern, bloody pluck which crowned him 
victor. 

It was a genuine surprise to see his old foemen, 
when, almost before they had completed their sur- 
render to him, he seemed more anxious to feed his 
prisoners from the rations of his own men than he 
was to secure his captives. 

When we expected harsh orders we heard the 
command that we retain our horses and our side- 
arms. 

When civil prosecutions of our officers were at- 
tempted it was our old foe Grant who stood in the 
breach and demanded that his parole be respected. 

When the triumphal armies of the Union entered 
our deserted capital he refused to taunt his old 
and honored foemen with a Roman triumph. 

And so as the years rolled by the Confederate sol- 
dier in his poverty learned to draw near to Grant 
as his friend, in full assurance that whoever else 
should chide him for his past there was one great 
generous heart who held the grimy Johnny Red 
as second only to his own brave boys in blue, in 
right to claim his loving care and tenderness. 

Thus it is, Mr. Chairman, that I, not as a citizen 
of the dead Confederacy, or with any lurking regret 
as to its fate, but as a true and loyal and loving 
citizen of the United States of America claim share 
in this demonstration with privilege of doing honor 
to myself and to my people, in honoring the mem- 
ory of Grant. (Applause.) 

We have the happiest, the freest, the best nation, 



146 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 



that the sun shines upon in his course. 

None love it more. None are truer in their alle- 
giance. None more honestly earnest in the hope 
that it shall be united for all time to come — than 
the men from whose opposed ranks Grant carved 
his noble fame, the soldiers of the dead Confeder- 
acy, ( Loud and long continued applause. ) 

JNO S. WISE. 



ANCIS K*i»Di-t Wy R THOMPSON. T*t<fv*ti WALTER B STEVEWS. Siciiiof 

WORLDS' FAIR, ST. LOUIS 

iao4 

LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION 

'"^ " CEREMONIES WASKu'i^ln 

tl)W\HDC CULrSf(> 

April 7, 1904. 

Mr. James L. Post, 

Blanke Tea & Coffee Company, 
St. Louis, Missouri. 
Bear Slr:- 

1 brought up your letter before the Committee laet night 
for a "Special Day'for Orant Cabin Day. It Is the opinion of tho 
Committee that Inasmuch as no day had been asked for for disting- 
uished Anericens, that It would be Improper to have one for General 
Grant. I was so requested to notify you. 
Very' truly yours. 



Secretary, 

Comnlttee on Ceremonies, 



WORLDS FAIR, ST. LOUIS 

1804 

LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION 



St Louis. U. S. fl. 



July 23. 1903 



nentlotrcn;-- 

Ir roply toyour ffivor of the 32r.d Iprt., I'eKardlng 
photoerapha or Grant's Cabin, will sr.y thnt It rs '•orlrary to our 
policy to circulate copyrlelit'^d photocranha. Consoquently no pho- 
tccr^Tih cf "-he Grant's Cabin has been sent out bv thl l: ■lopartrcnt. 

Pespeetfiilly, 



Cor. cii Press and Publicity 



/.dvTrtl'jJ ng- Depart'r.ont, 

C, F. Blanke Tea fc Coffee Co., 
City. 



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